Wrongly jailed Malkinson says demand for legal fees is 'penny-pinching'

Andrew Malkinson has called on the government to intervene after he was asked to deduct legal fees out of his compensation from being wrongfully convicted of rape. He estimates that he could also be asked to pay up to £10,000 for experts who helped launch his successful court challenge, describing the request for the payment of fees as "penny-pinching". "I think this is something [Justice Secretary] David Lammy could fix with the stroke of a pen tomorrow easily," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Malkinson served more than 17 years in prison for a brutal 2003 attack in Greater Manchester, in what became one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history. "I don't know what the justification is but it doesn't make any sense at all to do that except to say obviously they are trying to claw back as much as possible," he said. "It's really wrong, it feels vindictive. Why doesn't the state, the perpetrator of the injustice, pay the costs for the experts and legal fees because they caused the damage, not me?" In a statement, the Ministry of Justice told the BBC: "The miscarriage of justice compensation scheme is designed to help individuals rebuild their lives and last year