A FORMER Great Harwood man who was jailed for 18 years for a brutal double murder he did not commit has been told he will lose part of his compensation to cover the cost of his living expenses while he was in prison.

Ex-soldier Peter Fell, 42, was jailed in 1984 for the murder of two women stabbed to death while walking their dogs on Aldershot Common.

Mr Fell, who spent his childhood at Blake Gardens Children's Home in Great Harwood and attended Norden High School, Rish-ton, was freed by the Appeal Court in 2001.

He has now been told that he will have to re-pay 25 per cent of any miscarriage of justice compensation he receives to cover the cost of his board and lodgings during his time in prison.

Mr Fell's case for compensation is expected to follow that of cousins Vincent and Michael Hickey, who spent 18 years in jail for the murder of newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater.

They had their convictions quashed in 1997 and both were awarded compensation but an independent assessor ruled that it should be cut by 25 per cent to cover living expenses.

The High Court overturned the original ruling but the assessor appealed against the decision and the Court of Appeal this week ruled that the men's compensation will be cut by 25 per cent.

Mr Fell said: "This will affect everybody right across the board. If this is the way that they treat miscarriage of justice victims outside of prison, it shows how they treated them in prison.

"I do see both sides. I know that you are not supposed to profit from a miscarriage of justice, it is meant to put you in the same boat as you were in when you went into prison, but how can they compensate somebody who has lost their marriage and children, which is what has happened to some people?"