diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/uspoof.cpp b/icu4c/source/i18n/uspoof.cpp
index 48e3e45dc49..58a706f0799 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/uspoof.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/uspoof.cpp
@@ -24,9 +24,6 @@
 
 #if !UCONFIG_NO_NORMALIZATION
 
-
-#include <stdio.h>      // debug
-
 U_NAMESPACE_USE
 
 
@@ -255,7 +252,7 @@ uspoof_check(const USpoofChecker *sc,
             UBool       haveMultipleMarks = FALSE;  
             UnicodeSet  marksSeenSoFar;   // Set of combining marks in a single combining sequence.
             
-            for (i=0; i<length ;) {
+            for (i=0; i<nfdLength ;) {
                 U16_NEXT(nfdText, i, nfdLength, c);
                 if (u_charType(c) != U_NON_SPACING_MARK) {
                     firstNonspacingMark = 0;
@@ -278,6 +275,11 @@ uspoof_check(const USpoofChecker *sc,
                     // No need to find more than the first failure.
                     result |= USPOOF_INVISIBLE;
                     failPos = i;
+                    // TODO: Bug 8655: failPos is the position in the NFD buffer, but what we want
+                    //       to give back to our caller is a position in the original input string.
+                    if (failPos > length) {
+                        failPos = length;
+                    }
                     break;
                 }
                 marksSeenSoFar.add(c);
diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/itspoof.cpp b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/itspoof.cpp
index dd2c2763999..08c651a66f2 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/itspoof.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/itspoof.cpp
@@ -91,7 +91,13 @@ void IntlTestSpoof::runIndexedTest( int32_t index, UBool exec, const char* &name
                 testConfData();
             }
             break;
-        default: name=""; break;
+          case 5:
+            name = "testBug8654";
+            if (exec) {
+                testBug8654();
+            }
+            break;
+         default: name=""; break;
     }
 }
 
@@ -251,7 +257,7 @@ void IntlTestSpoof::testInvisible() {
         TEST_ASSERT_SUCCESS(status);
         TEST_ASSERT_EQ(7, position);
 
-        // Tow acute accents, one from the composed a with acute accent, \u00e1,
+        // Two acute accents, one from the composed a with acute accent, \u00e1,
         // and one separate.
         position = -42;
         UnicodeString  s3 = UnicodeString("abcd\\u00e1\\u0301xyz").unescape();
@@ -261,6 +267,15 @@ void IntlTestSpoof::testInvisible() {
     TEST_TEARDOWN;
 }
 
+void IntlTestSpoof::testBug8654() {
+    TEST_SETUP
+        UnicodeString s = UnicodeString("B\u00c1\u0301").unescape();
+        int32_t position = -42;
+        TEST_ASSERT_EQ(USPOOF_INVISIBLE, uspoof_checkUnicodeString(sc, s, &position, &status) & USPOOF_INVISIBLE );
+        TEST_ASSERT_SUCCESS(status);
+        TEST_ASSERT_EQ(3, position);
+    TEST_TEARDOWN;
+}
 
 static UnicodeString parseHex(const UnicodeString &in) {
     // Convert a series of hex numbers in a Unicode String to a string with the
diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/itspoof.h b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/itspoof.h
index 6a77459ca10..abd54f5a930 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/itspoof.h
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/itspoof.h
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
 **********************************************************************
-* Copyright (C) 2009, International Business Machines Corporation 
+* Copyright (C) 2011, International Business Machines Corporation 
 * and others.  All Rights Reserved.
 **********************************************************************
 */
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ public:
 
     void testConfData();
 
+    void testBug8654();
+
     // Internal function to run a single skeleton test case.
     void  checkSkeleton(const USpoofChecker *sc, uint32_t flags, 
                         const char *input, const char *expected, int32_t lineNum);