Andrew Malkinson's rape conviction quashed after 20-year fight

A man whose rape conviction has been overturned after a 20-year fight has said the past two decades felt like he had been "kidnapped by the state".

Andrew Malkinson was jailed in 2004 for the attack on a woman in Salford, serving 17 years in prison for a crime he always said he did not commit.

His case was referred to the Court of Appeal in January after new evidence pointed to another potential suspect.

Mr Malkinson, 57, said: "I was innocent and finally they listened."

"But I have been innocent all along, for each of those 20 years that came before today," he said.

"It has taken nearly 20 years to persuade my kidnappers to let me go."

Overturning his conviction, Lord Justice Holroyd said Mr Malkinson could "leave the court free and no longer be subject to the conditions of licence".

Police also apologised for what they described as a "grave miscarriage of justice".

The first Mr Malkinson knew of the crime was when he was arrested in his hometown of Grimsby, two weeks after the assault and attempted murder in Salford.

He had been in the area at the time, working temporarily as a security guard.

Mr Malkinson was found guilty following a trial in 2003 and sentenced to life with a minimum term of seven years.

However, he served a further 10 years in jail after his tariff expired.

His barrister Edward Henry KC told the court this was because Mr Malkinson would never "falsely confess to abhorrent crimes which he did not commit".

Mr Malkinson previously applied twice for his case to be reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) but he was turned down, eventually being released from prison in December 2020.

At the time of his trial, there was no DNA evidence linking him to the crime and the prosecution's case against him was based solely on identification evidence.

After his release, advancements in scientific techniques allowed his legal team, supported by legal charity Appeal, to provide new analysis that cast doubt on his conviction to the CCRC.

The body then commissioned its own testing which found that DNA from the victim's clothing matched another man on the national police database.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) later conceded Mr Malkinson's conviction was unsafe because new evidence pointed to another man, who the court ordered can only be identified as Mr B.

Both the CPS and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed in May they would not contest a fresh appeal.

Police said in January that a man had been arrested and released under investigation in light of the new information, but no decision had been made on whether he will be charged.

Speaking outside the court, Mr Malkinson said: "When a jury finds you guilty when you are innocent, reality does not change.

"You know you did not commit the crime, but all the people around you start living in a false fantasy universe and treat you as if you are guilty.

"Now I have finally been exonerated, I am left outside this court without an apology, without an explanation, jobless, homeless, expected to simply slip back into the world with no acknowledgement of the gaping black hole they opened up in my life

"A black hole that looms so large behind me that I fear it will swallow me up."

He continued: "People convicted of rape are the lowest of the low. I did not commit the crime, but I was treated as if I did. I spent 17 years on my guard against every threat.

"Seventeen years counting down the minutes to lock up, so I could be behind my door and safe from other prisoners, but not safe from my own mind, imagining I would die there, perhaps murdered.

"But somehow I lived."

His mother Trisha Hose said: "For nearly 20 years people have assumed that I was just a loyal but deluded mother in denial about what my son was capable of doing.

"I knew the system had got it wrong, but it seemed like there was nothing I could do about it."

Now he had been cleared, Ms Hose said she was "no longer a deluded mother" and her son was "no longer a monster".

"But what has been done to him cannot be undone," she said.

"The damage will be with him for the rest of his life, and the woman who got attacked has been denied justice, just as my son was."

Opening the appeal earlier, Mr Henry said: "This is the most troubling case which may have wide implications for the administration of criminal justice.

"This is a historic case - and a historic injustice.

"Grave failures that must lie at the door of GMP that wholly undermined a fair trial."

"No-one else should have to go through what Mr Malkinson has endured."

Lord Justice Holroyde said other points argued by Mr Malkinson's legal team, about "crucial" material that was not disclosed at the time of his trial, "raised a number of substantial and important points".

He said the court would take time to consider them and give a decision on them later in writing.

GMP's Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Jackson said the force was "truly sorry" to Mr Malkinson over the "grave miscarriage of justice".

She said the force was "also profoundly sorry to the victim of this crime, who not only suffered an horrific trauma 20 years ago, but also relived the experience during a criminal trial, and now may endure additional harm caused by learning that the true offender has not yet been brought to justice".

Cases like Mr Malkinson's were "thankfully very rare", she said, but added that the force had and would continue to "fully co-operate with any further reviews and action will be taken if it is found that anything could have been done differently".

She said she had offered to meet Mr Malkinson "to personally deliver this apology".

"We are determined to work with our colleagues in the CPS to ensure all new evidence is fully examined and that the person truly responsible is convicted," she said.

CCRC chairman Helen Pitcher said she welcomed the decision to overturn Mr Malkinson's conviction.

"In the ever-changing world of forensic science, new evidence can come to light years after a conviction," she said.

"We used our special powers to take advantage of DNA breakthroughs to find evidence that we considered could overturn this conviction.

"We recognise that Andrew has had a very long journey to clear his name, but sadly the evidence that led to the court overturning his conviction only became available years after his conviction."

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