War veteran's case against Ann Keen MP overturned (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

War veteran's case against Ann Keen MP overturned

1:55pm Wednesday 29th April 2009

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A war veteran who sued Ann Keen MP for £15,000 after claiming she had failed to fulfil her duty as an MP had his compensation judgement overturned today.

John Taylor, 84, claimed the Brentford and Isleworth MP refused to acknowledge his pleas for support to gain compensation for a miscarriage of justice in 1962.

He has spent three years in prison after he was wrongly convicted of stealing £17.

He took the case to Brentford County Court where Mrs Keen failed to enter a defence and Mr Taylor was awarded £15,000 damages in default in December last year.

But this afternoon District Judge Tim Jenkins ruled that judgement should be set aside.

Mr Taylor earlier told the court: "What this court is really saying if they rule against me, is an MP can do whatever they like once they are elected and there is no court in the land that can order them to do anything.”

Judge Jenkins said: "I understand that Mr Taylor has this grievance but I simply do not accept that he has a case of action that there's an entitlement to in law that allows him to bring a civil claim in the county court seeking financial compensation in the way he has done."

Mrs Keen, who was attending Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons this afternoon, said in a statement: "I'm sorry that this court action had to go this far.

"As an MP I deal with huge numbers of cases each year for my constituents, many of which have successful outcomes.

"Unfortunately, some cases for a variety of reasons do not have successful outcomes.

"Despite trying my hardest for Mr Taylor for more than 10 years since 1997, this was one such case."

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