Former prison guard Anthony Mifsud is still waiting to receive the €186,000 he was awarded in compensation for being tortured by policemen 28 years ago.

Mr Mifsud was wrongfully accused of helping prisoners escape in 1982 and was savagely beaten under interrogation until he gave a false confession at gunpoint.

“I’m not thinking about the money, I just want justice to be done. This is not fair,” the 51-year-old told The Sunday Times.

His compensation money is accumulating interest, but since he cannot work, the delay in payment means he is still dependent on his family, something he finds degrading.

“I still take a pill for the shock every day. I am also disabled. I don’t have the strength you have. If I go to work I will get tired and leave.”

If the incident had never taken place, and Mr Mifsud had spent the past 28 years with a part-time annual salary of €7,000, he would have earned more than he was granted in compensation last September.

When he appealed, his lawyer had calculated he was actually owed around €1.2 million, but for “expecting more than he was due by law”, the Constitutional Court ordered Mr Mifsud to pay 20 per cent of court fees.

“That is sacrilegious. You are getting me to pay when I have done nothing wrong,” he says.

“They took away my job and my life... I spent three years in prison for nothing. They framed me. They tarnished my reputation.”

After three years awaiting trial in prison between 1982 and 1985 a jury found him not guilty of helping Louis Bartolo and Ahmed Khalil Habib escape.

Even though Mr Mifsud remembers his ordeal in graphic detail, he smiles in disbelief.

“I got a call in the morning and they told me to go to the prison immediately because two prisoners had escaped. My car failed to start so I got on to a bus.”

After being transferred from one office to another, he was placed on a chair. The officers in charge told him they knew he helped the prisoners escape but since Mr Mifsud said he had no idea what they were talking about, they beat him until he almost lost consciousness.

He was attacked with a cane and threatened with a diving knife and a gun.

“I remember feeling something cold at the back of my head. And they started counting ‘One, two, three... where is Louis Bartolo?’”

Eventually he agreed to “lie”, after being told his other option was to be killed.

“From my cell I called for the doctor but they never sent one. I couldn’t even eat or drink because of the pain,” Mr Mifsud, who was 22 at the time, said.

What hurts him most is that the policemen who terrorised him got off scot-free as legal action could not be taken against them since the case was time-barred.

He therefore filed a compensation suit in the civil court against his assailants: Police Inspector Joseph Psaila, former Police Superintendent Carmelo Bonello, former Police Commissioner Lawrence Pullicino and the current Police Commissioner, who represents the State.

Even though Mr Mifsud won the case, the perpetrators had their portion of the compensation capped at a combined €25,000 by a Constitutional Court.

The rest, €161,000, is owed by the State, meaning it will come from taxpayers’ money.

“Till now I have received nothing. I am waiting. I don’t want to do anything else for now. They think they are dealing with a little boy. I am going by the law. But there is a limit,” he says.

Mr Mifsud, who loved the justice system so much that he wanted to be a part of it, is left questioning whether the law is really equal for everyone.

“It’s not fair that you treat a man like an animal... and you get away with it. It is like telling people they can rob and kill. I didn’t take the law into my own hands,” he said.

“I suffered in my life. And I still suffer to this day, because of what they did to me. I just want to be given my dues... Not knowing where you stand drives you crazy.”

Last week Mr Mifsud filed a constitutional application seeking compensation over undue delays in two court cases. During his trial, the court had found that his right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time and to be presumed innocent until proven guilty had both been violated.

Meanwhile, the case he had instituted in May 1987 against Supt Bonello, Supt Psaila, and the Police Commissioner for subjecting him to inhumane treatment dragged on from 1987 to 2008.

He said the delays in the conclusion of the two court cases were unjustified and had caused him distress.