Murderer 'should be referred for parole': Home Secretary 'acted unlawfully', court says

THE HOME SECRETARY acted unlawfully when he refused to refer the case of one of three men sentenced to life for the murder of Carl Bridgewater, a newspaper boy, to the parole board, the High Court ruled yesterday.

Michael Howard is now considering an appeal against the ruling which could affect about 160 other life-sentence prisoners.

Michael Hickey, who has always maintained his innocence, was 17 when he was convicted in 1979. He is due to complete the 15-year 'retribution and deterrence' tariff period of his mandatory sentence in mid-December.

But Edward Fitzgerald, his counsel, said he was being denied a chance to be assessed by the parole board for release on licence because he was now in Ashworth security hospital in Liverpool, after suffering a mental breakdown.

Lord Justice Kennedy and Mr Justice Pill agreed that while Hickey remained a patient he was, nevertheless, a life prisoner - and that the Secretary of State should therefore seek the parole board's recommendation.

Lord Justice Kennedy said if Parliament had wished to exclude the period in hospital from the calculation, or to deprive a prisoner in hospital of the right to invoke referral to the parole board, it would have said so. Carolyn Taylor, his solicitor said she was 'confident' Hickey's release would be recommended and the Home Secretary would endorse it.

Hickey was convicted of the murder with his cousin, Vincent Hickey, and James Robinson. A fourth man, Pat Molloy, convicted of manslaughter, died in prison in 1981. Their appeal in 1989 was unsuccessful and, despite a huge campaign, the Home Office has refused to refer their case back for a review.

To protest his innocence, Hickey spent 89 days in a roof-top protest at Gartree Prison in Leicestershire in 1984. But soon afterwards, he was transferred to hospital suffering a mental breakdown and has since been shunted between prison and secure psychiatric hospitals.

Mr Fitzgerald said the doctor responsible for Mr Hickey at Ashworth had notified the Home Secretary that he was not a danger to the public, and his psychiatric condition no longer justified detention in hospital.