THE freed Bridgewater Three yesterday won back the £60,000 they were charged for "prison board and lodging".

Worcestershire cousins Vincent and Michael Hickey were freed in 1997 after serving 18 years for the murder of paperboy Carl Bridgewater.

They protested their innocence with hunger strikes and roof top protests at Long Lartin prison, near Evesham, before the conviction was quashed.

After being awarded around £1.5m between them, they were billed £60,000 each for their saved living expenses while in jail.

The two were accused of murdering paperboy Carl Bridgewater along with James Robinson and a fourth man, Patrick Molloy, who died in prison. But the conviction was overturned as a miscarriage of justice.

Yesterday, 48-year-old Vincent Hickey, of Redditch, and 41-year-old Michael, of Kidderminster, won their High Court battle over being billed for "board and lodging" while in jail.

In what are believed to be the first cases of their kind, a judge ruled deductions were wrongly made from the compensation that was being paid to them.

Mr Justice Maurice Kay, sitting in London, said a decision to "discount for saved living expenses" while in jail was the result of a "misdirection as to the common law" and must be quashed.

Suzie Labinjoh, of Hickman Rose, solicitors for the Hickeys, said today's ruling on prison "board and lodging" was just one aspect of an important case which provided important new guidelines for assessing compensation in future similar cases.

But it was the "absurd idea" that they should pay for the ordeal and suffering of being detained in prison which had caused the Hickeys so much "strength of feeling".

"Overall the case is obviously a very important victory for them and will have important implications for other victims of miscarriages of justice and how their compensation is assessed," said Ms Labinjoh.