Sam Hallam at Bullingdon Prison

The Hoxton man who has spent seven years in jail for a murder he has always maintained he did not commit has been freed on bail.

Wendy Cohen and her son Sam Hallam at Bullingdon prison

Sam Hallam was just 18 when he was jailed for life in 2005 for killing 21-year old Essayas Kassahun near Old Street tube station in a gang attack.

An appeal in 2007 was unsuccessful.

But earlier today in a second appeal at the Court of Appeal, he was freed on bail after the prosecution said it would not oppose his appeal against the conviction.

Court of Appeal judges heard Hallam, 24, was the victim of a “serious miscarriage of justice”.

The court will give its ruling in the appeal case tomorrow.

Cheers came from his friends and family in the public gallery, who have been campaigning to prove his innocence, when Lady Justice Hallett said the inmate would be released on bail.

Hallam’s QC Henry Blaxland told the court he had been convicted following a combination of “manifestly unreliable identification evidence, the apparent failure of his own alibi, failure by police properly to investigate his alibi and non-disclosure by the prosecution of material that could have supported his case.”

The case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission last year, after new evidence was unearthed after another police force reviewed every aspect of the original investigation back in 2004.

Wendy Hallam, Sam’s mum said her family had been through “hell.”