Andrew Malkinson conviction quashed

[LunaNorth]

I listened to the podcast 17 Years only the other week. I’m so pleased that this man has had his innocence acknowledged, but horrified that the perpetrator of such a heinous crime is still free, and his victim hasn’t had justice.

How can anyone come to terms with spending 17 years of their life stolen?

The mind boggles. It’s my worst nightmare.

Absolutely shocking. The police should hang their heads in shame.
There is now somebody on bail for the crime, since they " suddenly " found new evidence after all these years 😡

This sort of thing is why we should never bring back the death penalty. People say with modern technology all convictions are secure, but this was all in the 2000s and proves they are not!

So he could have been out much earlier if he'd "admitted" his crime.

This always makes me hesitant about the calls for murderers who've hidden bodies to get longer sentences if they don't reveal the location of the body - what would happen if you couldn't reveal it because you were innocent?

He’s missed 17 years of his son growing up. No matter what compensation he might get, it can never be enough.

On the podcast, he described a probation hearing where he just begged the authorities to tell him what to do - he said, ‘Should I sign a false confession?’ and they said no, never. He must have felt like he was in some kind of dystopian novel.

So he did a decade longer in prison because he wouldn’t admit to a crime he didn’t do.

It highlights how difficult rape cases are... from the news articles the only evidence was witness ID. But witnesses can be unreliable.

There's no winners here... the victim still hasn't had justice and AM has still lost his whole life really.

There’s often more to it. The case that prompted ‘Helens Law’ was very local to me. There was a ton of other evidence; a woman screaming, one of her earrings being found in his (Simms) car, a Labbatts promotional t-shirt (an uncommon brand but his pub sold it) with her blood on and other forensic evidence. He claimed that someone had broken into his pub, stolen his clothes, murdered Helen McCourt and broke back in to put his clothes back and frame him.

There wasn’t a chance in hell that he wasn’t guilty, the case lacked a body, that was all. It wasn’t that there was zero evidence with/without a body and I suspect this would be the case for most murder cases.

Yes. Terrible travesty for him.

I am getting to the stage where I just have no trust in the police, from the little I have read this sounds like a really weak case agaist him. Unimaginable, how do you deal with it once out, the anger must be so strong.

Be interesting to see what compensation (if any) he gets. Although with the prices of prison board and lodging it's possible he may end up owing the Home Office.

I watched the live proceedings from the Court of Appeal and the subsequent statements given outside the court.

This isn't the full story, at all.

The GMP destroyed evidence unlawfully on three occasions identified by the investigator for the law charity Appeal. The Greater Manchester Police coaxed witnesses they knew to be unreliable. The GMP coaxed the victim. The appeal system failed Andy Malkinson on at least three identifiable occasions.

This is far beyond 'witness ID'.

If the forensic archive hadn't kept samples of the victim's clothes (that the GMP subsequently unlawfully destroyed) then AM would be unable to prove his innocence and would have died in jail.

'Compensation' is not an appropriate word in these in circumstances.

I just can’t get my head around this. I haven’t heard of this case before but he is so articulate in his statement, that poor man!

But he never matched the victims description, esp the hairless chest (he was very hairy) or general appearance, no DNA and the witnesses were 2 heroin addicts who had a string of charges dropped against them a few weeks after their "evidence".
They had DNA from the victims underwear that never matched his, the "new" evidence is that DNA can now be pinned to an individual but the DNA itself is not.
Our jury system clearly is not as robust as we'd like to think.

This on top of GMP officers allegedly raping a woman arrested, held in a cell, stripped and crucial cctv evidence no missing!

Police fit for purpose?

I find him amazingly strong and articulate. He passed a degree and maths and physics while in jail.

I’d have been rocking in a corner.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/26/appeal-court-overturns-manchester-rape-conviction-of-man-who-spent-17-years-in-jail-andrew-malkinson

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/26/andrew-malkinson-greater-manchester-police-failings-denied-man-fair-trial-court-told

The fact that it's a rape case is a red herring really - very very few rape trials hinge on the identity of the perpetrator like this case.

And this is why it is a travesty that the forensic service was disbanded and the majority done by police forces directly. There is no separation and independence

GMP ignored the forensics and the description of the victim, they just went with getting their man, whoever that happened to be.

The original DNA was kept, hence they now have a suspect.

Lab first started closing down labs, the Tories finished the job, with full privatisation.

I couldn't agree more.

How did he come to be arrested in the first place? Surely there must have been something at least circumstantial? He wasn't just picked off the street or from his house? Did he have previous?

I ask that to try and understand how such a terrible thing could have happened. There is no amount of money that can compensate really

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/26/i-started-shaking-andrew-malkinson-on-being-told-he-is-a-free-man

I just saw the interview with him, his grace re the victim and her ongoing and refreshed trauma was astonishing given his experiences, and was good to hear from him, she is back in limbo again and he got that. I wish him well and hope he takes them for a lot of compensation, and for her, that they finally use that dna to find the rapist.

But as said, it reminded me of when they charged the Birmingham 6 for room and board post release, which still sits as one of the most outrageous things I ever read (am from Brum, and we all thought they were innocent )

It's absolutely shocking not only that he was convicted in the first place on such flimsy evidence but that he wasn't quickly able to launch a successful appeal. It looks like a total stitch-up by GMP.

And a complete failure of the appeals system.