23 July 2025, 15:15

By Andy Coulson

Tom Hayes is not the first man to be broken by a flawed system.

But he might just be one of the few who’s managed to pull himself through it while staying sane, focused and astonishingly fair-minded.

The Supreme Court’s decision to quash his conviction is, of course, a matter of law. But the story of how he survived what came before that decision — five and a half years in prison, a shredded reputation, a wrecked family — is a matter of character.

I interviewed Tom earlier this year for my podcast Crisis What Crisis? and what struck me then, and strikes me even more now, is that he didn’t dodge, didn’t rant and certainly didn’t seek pity. He simply told the truth.

“The UK,” Tom said, “is now alone.” Not a political statement, just a legal reality. Countries across the developed world — Japan, Canada, the U.S. — all concluded that the actions he was accused of simply weren’t crimes at the........

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