Andrew Malkinson has said his “emotions immediately boiled up” when prosecutors asked him to give evidence in the trial of the real culprit of a brutal rape he wrongly served 17 years in prison for.
Paul Quinn, 52, was found guilty of the 2003 sex attack on April 17 after a six-week trial at Manchester Crown Court.
Mr Malkinson, victim of one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British criminal history, told The Sunday Times he was horrified at the idea of returning to give evidence to the same court he was wrongly convicted at 22 years ago.
In his first full interview since Quinn was convicted, the 60-year-old said: “It seemed like they were being a bit insensitive at the very least to even ask me, because what have I got that they haven’t?”
Quinn attacked a young mother as she walked home in Little Hulton, Salford, in the early hours of the morning on July 19 2003.
Mr Malkinson, working as a security guard at a local shopping centre, protested his innocence but was wrongly picked out at an identity parade and jailed.
When the victim gave evidence against Mr Malkinson in 2003, she had doubts she had picked out the right man, but police dismissed this as “just trial nerves”.
A DNA sample from the victim’s vest top, only recovered and identified in 2007, was analysed and ruled out Mr Malkinson in a development which “ought to have set alarm bells ringing”, Quinn’s trial heard.
Father-of-six Quinn, a sex offender from the age of 12, was arrested almost two decades on from the trial.
This came after advances in DNA testing meant that in 2022 a billion-to-one match of his DNA profile was made with saliva left on the vest top.
On prosecutors’ request to give evidence, Mr Malkinson told The Sunday Times: “They’ve got a billion-to-one DNA, what possibly could I add to that? It’s total flashback territory.
“I knew I couldn’t (do it) because my emotions immediately boiled up on hearing the request. I thought I might even jeopardise the trial somehow … like by saying the wrong thing.”
His mental health has been affected by the “wanton destruction apparently of vital DNA evidence, that is the clothing of the victim”, he told the newspaper.
Mr Malkinson added: “And it didn’t just happen as a singular, ‘Ooh, I just made a mistake.’ It was a repetitive thing, like a cleaning-up exercise.
“And that is very, very disturbing to me, and I’m apoplectic that they did that and they were able to do it so easily.”
Five former Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers and one currently serving with the force are under investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over the case, with both the chair and chief executive of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) having resigned.
A public inquiry is under way after a 2024 review found failings that could have exonerated Mr Malkinson a decade before he was eventually released from prison.
He fears those facing scrutiny may be unco-operative because retired officers are not required to assist IOPC probes.
Police who retired before 2017 do not have to attend their own misconduct hearings.
Mr Malkinson told The Sunday Times: “They can just say: ‘Oh, I’ve retired now, so it doesn’t matter.'”
He added: “Can bank robbers say: ‘I’ve retired now, doesn’t matter’? No. That really annoys me.”
After Quinn’s conviction, Assistant Chief Constable of GMP, Steph Parker, said: “I am absolutely confident – and the IOPC (Independent Office of Police Conduct) will tell you themselves – that they are determined to find answers for what went on in 2003, and equally we are supporting them with that, and we will learn from whatever findings arise from their investigation.”
Both Mr Malkinson said both he and the victim were “deceived by agencies”, adding: “I’m sure she hated my name for many, many years, thinking: ‘Well, this is the identity of my attacker.’
“It’s just been devastating for me, and I’m still suffering very much the consequences. And I’m sure, similarly, the victim has suffered and is suffering and in all probability will continue to,” he said.
Seeing images of Quinn as the trial started made him think: “How can I be mistaken for (him)?’”
“It really made me angry, because I had to suffer the consequences of what he’d done, and they were not kind to me.”
However, the phone call announcing the conviction was a “fantastic moment” during his holiday in Rome with his adult son.
“I had a couple of margaritas. A little tequila. Not too many. It would be unseemly to get drunk,” he said.
Mr Malkinson’s payout for the injustice is being finalised.
“There’s a great deal wrong with the compensation system. It’s all been carefully managed so they can pay the bare minimum they can get away with,” he told The Sunday Times.
