A man has been tried accused of the rape of a woman 23 years ago which led to one of the worst miscarriages of justice in Britain.
Andrew Malkinson spent more than 17 years in prison after being wrongly linked to crime in Greater Manchester in 2003, a jury was told on Wednesday.
John Price KC, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court that Malkinson was in fact “a victim of the most terrible miscarriage of justice, one of the worst ever”.
Another man, Paul Quinn, 51, is now on trial charged with two counts of rape, one count of attempted strangulation and one count of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He denies the charges.
Price told the jury the woman was subjected to sexual violence “of the most serious kind” in the Salford area on July 19, 2003. She was raped twice and strangled until she was unconscious, with her left cheekbone fractured by a blow to her face, the court heard.
The prosecutor said that the man who carried out the “terrible attack” was a complete stranger to the victim. Quinn, from Exeter, sat taking notes as he listened to the proceedings from the glass dock.
Quinn, who lived near the scene of the attack, is accused of following the victim as she approached an embankment near a highway bridge, where she “suddenly launched her assault.”
Price said: “What that tells you, the prosecution maintains, is that he wasn’t just a local man. He was someone who knew about that dark place. A man with prior knowledge of its existence.”
The prosecutor told the jury that Quinn had planned to “forcibly remove her from sight of the road.”
Malkinson’s name was first mentioned in relation to the rape by two police officers, the court was told. They said they had spoken to him weeks earlier and thought he matched the description given by the victim.
When the two officers spoke to Malkinson the day after the attack, they thought he looked “strikingly” like his description, the court heard. However, the victim believed his attacker would have an “obvious” scratch on his face from the fight, but Malkinson did not have any visible injuries.
The jury was told that Malkinson, who was then working as a security officer at a local shopping centre, had a dispute with the people he was living with and told them he was going to the Netherlands.
Price said this “sudden departure” raised Malkinson’s suspicions among detectives and he was arrested shortly after being tracked to a hostel in Grimsby.
The court heard that two other witnesses, Beverley Craig and Michael Seward, had identified Malkinson in a digital identification parade after seeing the attacker “sweating profusely” shortly after the attack.
However, jurors were told Craig initially identified another man in the police line-up but then singled out Malkinson after leaving the room. Seward, his partner, singled out Malkinson during another identification parade four months later.
Malkinson’s identifications were errors “made honestly and genuinely,” prosecutors said.
Price said new tests had shown Quinn’s DNA on the victim’s clothing and body. The prosecutor said there was “no plausible alternative explanation” for how this DNA could be deposited in this way.
The trial continues.
