A man convicted of child sex abuse served 5 years in prison. It cost him $600,000 to prove his innocence.
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- A wrongly convicted man spent more than $600,000 in legal fees to prove his innocence, per the BBC.
- Brian Buckle served more than 5 years in prison for child sex abuse over flawed DNA evidence.
- Thousands have to prove their innocence in court after being found guilty, per UK official data.
A wrongly convicted man spent more than $600,000 to prove his innocence after serving more than five years in prison for child sex abuse, according to the BBC.
Brian Buckle, now 51, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2017 at Swansea Crown Court in Wales on 16 counts of historical child sex abuse for abusing a girl in the 1990s, per the outlet.
Buckle and his family spent the next five and a half years contesting the conviction, using inheritance money, donations from relatives, loans, and crowdsourcing to cover the costs of private investigators and forensic experts, per the BBC.
Their efforts finally paid off when a forensic expert retested a diary that was said to be stained with Buckle's semen and found it had traces of lubricant used in condoms, per Inside Time magazine, a monthly outlet for prisoners and detainees.
In a Court of Appeal hearing held in 2022, Buckle's attorney argued that the semen originated from a used condom and that the samples may have been planted, per the outlet.
Citing the new DNA evidence, the judges overturned all 16 guilty verdicts and immediately released Buckle, the BBC reported.
But his ordeal didn't end there, as the Crown Prosecution Service sought a retrial in May 2023, per the outlet.
The complainant then admitted in court that she had been abused two years before meeting Buckle, and he was acquitted, Inside Time magazine reported.
However, his family ended up spending more than £500,000, about $600,000, in legal fees to prove his innocence, and have not been able to reclaim the costs, the BBC reported.
In English and Welsh courts, about 60% of defendants who plead not guilty are found guilty, per the UK Home Office data. And to fight your conviction takes time and money.
In May, the UK's Ministry of Justice announced legal aid would become available to everyone — regardless of their annual disposable income. But the changes won't come into force until 2025, per the Ministry of Justice's statement.
Buckle's household earns more than £37,500, or about $45,000, and was therefore not eligible for legal aid.
The Law Society, the independent professional body for solicitors in England and Wales, called this an "innocence tax".
"You're innocent and you're taxed by the state — you have to pay for your defense when you shouldn't," Stuart Nolan, from the Law Society, told the BBC.
During his time behind bars, Buckle said he lost his father and missed his daughter's 18th and 21st birthdays. "You can't get that back," he told the outlet.