From a 2018 newspaper article: "Ms Julia Morgan, defending, argued that Hickey suffered from mental health issues related to his time in prison for which he had been receiving treatment since his release in 1997."
A person deserves to be punished for the crimes he or she committed, not a crime he or she did not commit. The police fitted him up for the murder of Carl Bridgewater. There is also the issue of Mr. Hickey's mental health (see above), which the judge may have seen as a mitigating circumstance.
This alleged mental health issues were claimed to be as a result of his long incarceration, I am referring to the armed robberies he took part in which inflicted terror on members of the public including an elderly couple, prior to his incarceration. He already had a criminal record by this point and was clearly a thorougly unpleasant individual, not someone to be revered as a martyr and a hero as some people appear to want to do.
Theft Act 1968, s.8
(1) A person is guilty of robbery if he steals, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, he uses force on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force.
(2) A person guilty of robbery, or of an assault with intent to rob, shall on conviction on indictment be liable to imprisonment for life.
