Andrew Malkinson said he was left to ‘rot’ behind bars by the real culprit Paul Quinn who was jailed on Friday.
An innocent man wrongly jailed for 17 years said he is “insulted” after the “soft” sentence of the real rapist.
Andrew Malkinson said he was left to “rot” behind bars by real culprit, father-of-six Paul Quinn, 52, in one of the worst cases of a miscarriage of justice in British criminal history.
Quinn, who was linked by DNA to the brutal rape only decades later, was on Friday jailed for 21 years at Manchester Crown Court.
But he will be eligible to apply for parole after serving 14 years.
Mr Malkinson said: “I am insulted that this violent, depraved individual who was content to let me suffer two decades of vilification and more than 17 years wrongly imprisoned for his crime – has received a softer sentence than was imposed on me, an innocent man.
“I got sentenced to life imprisonment and served more than 17 years inside. Throughout that time I didn’t know if I would ever be released.
“Paul Quinn, who has a track record of violence and sexual offences, and who let me rot whilst he enjoyed his freedom, could now be out after just 14 years, and will certainly be out after 21 years.
“I am also appalled for the victim, who has suffered so gravely and whose real attacker has today gotten off lightly. My thoughts are with her and her loved ones – who I hope today nevertheless brings some peace.”
Quinn was given a 24-year sentence, comprising 21 years custody with an extended licence of three years, which means he could be recalled to prison if he breaks the terms of his release.
He will be eligible for parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence, in 14 years’ time.
Quinn made no reaction as he was finally sentenced 23 years after the sex attack for which Mr Malkinson was wrongly convicted.
Passing sentence on Friday, following a six-week trial at Manchester Crown Court ending in April, Mr Justice Robert Bright told the defendant: “You sat back and enjoyed your liberty at the expense of an innocent man.
“It’s true you never did anything to implicate Mr Malkinson, however, but for you he would never have even been questioned.”
And he described the woman Quinn attacked, who twice had to endure giving evidence at a trial, as “heroic”.
“She is truly a hero,” he said, as the victim sat listening at the back of the court, clutching a white handkerchief and hugging her husband.
The victim, a young mother, was beaten, bitten, choked unconscious and raped after being snatched from the street as she walked home in Little Hulton, Salford, in the early hours of July 19 2003.
She sat in court weeping as a lawyer read her impact statement, which read: “After 20 years, I now have justice but that does not change the fact that two lives have been impacted in such a way.
“As for me, the impact of what happened that day has stayed with me and will remain with me for life.
“Every day, I look at my face and see the disfigurement, the scarring. It is a permanent reminder of that night and what I experienced. I have to live with that.
“For him it was one night of his life, for me it was one night that changed my life.”
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.
He was a treated as a “handy patsy” for police who just wanted a “quick conviction” he has said.
Quinn, aged 29 at the time of the rape but a sex offender from the age of 12, was arrested almost two decades later 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 victim’s vest top.
By then, Mr Malkinson, from Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, had made multiple failed appeals.
Now aged 60, he was released in 2020 after 17 years in jail, with his
conviction finally quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2023.
Fallout from the case continues, with a public inquiry now under way after a 2024 review found failings that could have exonerated Mr Malkinson a decade before he was eventually released from prison.
And 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), with both the chair and chief executive of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) having resigned.
GMP has since apologised to Mr Malkinson, describing Quinn as a “dangerous man” who went free and watched an innocent man jailed.
Quinn had stalked his victim, in her 30s, dragging her from the street down a secluded motorway embankment.
He battered her, fracturing her cheekbone, and she was strangled unconscious and twice raped.
He also bit her left nipple, almost severing it, but left behind, on her vest top, his saliva from which his DNA was recovered years later.
When the victim gave evidence against Mr Malkinson in 2003, she had doubts she had picked out the right man, but said police dismissed this as “just trial nerves”.
The DNA sample from the vest top, only recovered in 2007, was analysed and ruled out Mr Malkinson, a development which “ought to have set alarm bells ringing”, Quinn’s trial heard.
The crime scene sample was identified as coming from “Unknown Male 1”.
Quinn had a history of sexual offending and violence towards women and had been cautioned for indecent assault in 1986, aged just 12, and in November 1992, aged 16, he was convicted of two counts of underage sex with a girl aged 12.
In 2012, he was visited by police to take his DNA to put on the national
database during a national operation to harvest samples from known sex offenders.
In 2012 and 2020, the Criminal Cases Review Commission twice refused an appeal by Mr Malkinson.
As DNA testing advanced, in August 2022 news broke that police had matched the vest top DNA sample “Unknown male 1” to another man.
The development had a “profound” effect on Quinn’s internet usage.
Quinn told jurors it was a “complete coincidence” he began scouring the news for information on the Malkinson case and repeatedly searched Google, asking: “How long is DNA kept in database?” and “Why do I keep sweating all the time?”
He also searched “wrongful convictions” in the UK and had begun to “fear a knock on the door” was coming, the court had heard.
By the time of his arrest in December 2022, Quinn had divorced in 2016 and moved to Exeter, Devon, working as a delivery driver, following a dispute over drugs in his home town of Salford.
He continues to deny he is responsible and his current partner is understood to be standing by him.
Quinn was convicted of two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm and attempting to choke or strangle his victim to render her unconscious while he carried out the attack.
Detectives believe Quinn may be responsible for other offences and are looking at any links he may have to unsolved crimes.
Outside court, Detective Chief Superintendent Rebecca McKendrick said of Quinn: “He knew his crime was horrific and he knew how cowardly he was for watching another man go to prison.
“We know this outcome has come two decades too late for those impacted by this case.
“To commit such a violent attack raises concerns that there may be other victims out there.
“If you believe you have been a victim or have information you have not yet shared with us, please know we want to hear from you.”
