Court rules $2m compensation to victim of malicious prosecution

The Supreme Court has awarded compensation to a woman jailed for 10 years.

The Supreme Court has awarded compensation to a woman who was jailed for 10 years after suing for malicious prosecution.

Justice Ian Harrison awarded Roseanne Beckett $2m plus costs this morning.

Beckett was jailed in 1991 for allegedly trying to solicit others to kill her husband and trying to poison him with lithium, but was released from prison in 2001 after new evidence came to light proving her innocence.

According to the ABC, charges were dropped in 2005 during an appeal but the NSW director of public prosecutions never pursued a retrial.

Beckett won a High Court bid to seek compensation for malicious prosecution in 2013 and asked the High Court to review the law.
“It is outrageous to think this is the way they treat Australian citizens,” Beckett said, adding that the DPP had spent millions trying to stop her from suing.

“They don't care how much money of the public purse they've used doing this and I'm thrilled that these six judges have seen the wickedness and unanimously came back in my favour.”

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