It doesn’t get much more shocking than this.
For those people who still think the death penalty should be re-introduced, how do they feel when they look at the recent news about Andy Malkinson. After 20 years of insisting he was not guilty, 17 of those wasted in prison, finally Andy Malkinson’s conviction for rape has been quashed.
The details are the stuff of nightmares. The first Andy heard of the attack was when he was at home in Grimsby and arrested for a rape and attempted murder that had taken place two weeks earlier in Salford.
Out of the Blue
Andy had been in the area at the time working as a temporary security guard ahead of a permanent move to The Netherlands. He told police that when the attack had taken place, he had been asleep at the house of another security guard where he had been staying. But this man could not say for sure that Andy had been there that night – but he had no particular reason to.
Andy couldn’t believe what was happening to him, it was like he was sleep walking into a nightmare. But let’s look at some of the facts at the time:
He bore no resemblance to the e-fit: not in the slightest;
There was no DNA or forensic evidence linking him to the crime scene;
The victim had deeply scratched the face of her attacker, but there was no mark on his face and none of his colleagues recalled seeing this;
He was taller than the victim described her attacker;
The victim did not mention any tatoos and he had a number of forearm tatoos;
The victim said the man had a Bolton accent. Andy didn’t;
The attacker had a shaved smooth chest. Andy had never shaved his chest.
Of course, at such a traumatic time for the victim some details are missed/incorrect. But looking at the list above, it is hard to see how anybody could have seriously seen Andy as a suspect.
Grave and Repeated Failings
At his trial, Andy Malkinson was found guilty and sent to prison. When he refused to admit his guilt, he was then denied parole. In the end it was advances in the science that saved him as dna found on the victim was shown not to be his.
The court of appeal heard that Andy had been denied a fair trial because of “grave and repeated” failings of disclosure by the Greater Manchester Police Force, which included around the key witnesses.
At his original trial, despite repeated requests for disclosure of past criminal records, the court wasn’t told that a key witness was a “long-term heroin addict” with multiple criminal convictions. Even worse, they weren’t told that he only put himself forward as a witness on the night that he was arrested for another crime. The disclosure failure came despite explicit requests for witnesses’ criminal records.
This witness said he had been driving in the middle of the night with a woman who was also a witness in the case and whose criminal convictions were also not disclosed to the court. They both claimed they had seen the moments just before the attack.
Incompetence
And the incompetence of the Greater Manchester Police Force almost led to the destruction of the evidence that cleared Andy.
The victim’s vest top, bra, knickers and other clothing were destroyed by the police force despite a preservation order being in place.
Re-testing was only able to take place as small samples from her clothes were found in a national archive by Andy’s legal team at appeal.
Statement
Reading a statement outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Andy said:
“I came to the police station in 2003 and told the officers I was innocent. They didn’t believe me.
“I came to the crown court in Manchester in 2004 and told the jury I was innocent. They didn’t believe me. I came to this appeal court in 2006 and told them I was innocent. They didn’t believe me.
“I applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is supposed to investigate miscarriages of justice, and told them I was innocent. They didn’t investigate and they didn’t believe me. Not once, but twice.
“Today we told this court I was innocent and, finally, they listened. But I have been innocent all along, for each of those 20 years that came before today. Nothing any police officer, court or commission said about me since 2003 changed that reality.”
The Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge against his conviction in 2006.
Andy then applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) – an independent body that examines potential miscarriages of justice.
It rejected his case twice and it was only due to the efforts of a small charity Appeal that Andy was finally freed.
Greater Manchester Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Jackson said the force was “truly sorry” to Andy Malkinson over the “grave miscarriage of justice”. Clearly, this is not enough and Andy quite rightly wants a lot more than this:
“I asked the CCRC to commission new DNA testing to prove my innocence years ago, but they refused. They wouldn’t even bother reviewing the police files.”
“I am unspeakably angry with Greater Manchester Police. I want those who have done wrong to be brought to account.
“I want a full criminal investigation into what happened, how I came to lose half of my life and suffer incredible indignities, pain and psychological torture.”
Implications
A man is now being investigated about the attack that resulted in Andy’s imprisonment. As well as the nightmare Andy has endured, this must be devastating for the victim of the attack who now finds all these years later that the man who assaulted her was not brought to justice for his crime.
With the current mess that the Criminal Justice System is in, how can we be sure that any conviction is safe? Just how many more miscarriages of justice are there?
And however strongly some may support the principle of the death penalty, surely the appalling treatment suffered by Andy Malkinson will make anybody think again..