Man wrongly jailed for rape could have been freed 10 years earlier, review finds

A man who was wrongly convicted of rape and jailed for 17 years could have been exonerated almost a decade earlier if not for serious failings by officials, a review has found.

- ANDY GREGORY

Andrew Malkinson, 57, was jailed for life in 2004 and had twice been refused an appeal after applying for his case to be reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) – the body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice.

His conviction was quashed in July 2023 after years spent protesting his innocence, and an official review has now laid bare a string of “serious” failings and missed chances to correct the miscarriage of justice from as early as 2009.

As the findings were published yesterday, Mr Malkinson accused the CCRC of having “obstructed my fight for justice and cost me an extra decade wrongly imprisoned”, as he called for a complete overhaul of the body and repeated demands for its chair Helen Pitcher to be sacked.

And James Burley, who led legal charity Appeal’s investigation into Mr Malkinson’s case, said the CCRC was a “broken safety net” as he branded the report “utterly damning”, urging justice secretary Shabana Mahmood to “bring in a fresh leadership team at the CCRC that is serious about rooting out wrongful convictions”.

Minutes later, Ms Mahmood announced it was her “firm view” having read the report that Ms Pitcher is “unfit to fulfil her duties” and had “begun the process to seek her removal from that position”.