False sex abuse convict denied compensation after acquittal in Wales
Brian Buckle spent five years in prison, won a unanimous acquittal, and still has been refused compensation twice under England and Wales’s tightened innocence test.
A retrial in Swansea found Brian Buckle not guilty of 16 historical child sex offences.
Buckle was convicted in 2017 at Swansea Crown Court over allegations that took place between 31 March 1993 and 1 April 1996 involving the same complainant. He was sentenced to a combined 33 years in prison, to be served over 15 years. The Court of Appeal found the conviction unsafe in September 2022, and he was released pending a fresh trial.
At the retrial in May 2023, Stephen Vullo KC called new witnesses and introduced fresh forensic evidence. The jury returned a unanimous not guilty verdict in just over an hour. By then, Buckle and his family had spent about £500,000 on the legal battle, money raised through savings and family loans.
The Ministry of Justice has rejected Buckle’s compensation claim twice, relying on the post-2014 test that requires applicants to prove their innocence beyond reasonable doubt. That test was tightened by section 175 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
In Parliament, figures discussed between April 2016 and March 2024 showed that only 39 of 591 miscarriage-of-justice compensation applications succeeded, a success rate of 6.6 percent.
Ben Lake, the Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion Preseli, raised the case at Prime Minister’s Questions on 9 July 2025. Sir Keir Starmer said the government would “have a look at” it. The Law Commission’s review of criminal appeals and compensation for the wrongly convicted continues.
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