A MAN strangled a woman unconscious and raped her in a “prolonged” attack that an innocent suspect spent 17 years in prison for, a court heard.
Andrew Malkinson became the “victim of a most terrible miscarriage of justice, one of the worst there has been” when he was convicted over the 2003 attack, jurors heard.
The 60-year-old was wrongly picked out at a police identity parade and happened to live near the crime scene in Little Hulton, Salford.
He was subsequently jailed in 2004 but John Price KC, prosecuting, said the real culprit was the man now sat in the dock, Paul Quinn.
Mr Price added: “Andrew Malkinson was not to be released from this sentence until December 2020.
“So, Mr Andrew Malkinson, served more than 17 years in prison.
“It is the prosecution case that Andrew Malkinson was the victim of a most terrible miscarriage of justice, one of the worst there has been.
“Evidence gathered in this second investigation, including, as mentioned, DNA evidence, and which will be presented in this trial, proves, it is submitted, that it was Paul Quinn and not Andrew Malkinson who had attacked the victim on 19th July, 2003.”
Manchester Crown Court heard the woman was walking home on July 19, 2003, when she was strangled unconscious, beaten and twice raped in a “prolonged assault”.
The complainant, who was left with a fractured cheek bone, managed to clamber back up the motorway embankment, telling a man she came across: “I have been attacked and raped.”
DNA evidence recovered by police matched Quinn’s DNA profile and was found on the clothing and body of the woman, jurors were told.
The court heard it could only have been left by her attacker as neither the woman or the defendant knew each other.
Two local officers were given a description of the suspect – a white man with tanned or olive skin and of a slim build.
They recalled a man they had spoken to earlier that summer, Andrew Malkinson, and went to visit him at his work as a security guard at the Ellesmere Shopping Centre.
Jurors heard the woman had also told officers her attacker would have a mark where she scratched him.
Andrew had no scratch on his face but jurors were told his appearance was considered “strikingly to match” the description of the rapist.
At the time, he lived with a friend in a flat in Little Hulton, around a mile-and-a-half from the scene of the attack.
Six days after the attack, Andrew abruptly quit his job and left, telling a friend he was going to Holland.
This prompted police to track him down to a Salvation Army Hostel in Grimsby, where he was arrested and brought back to Salford to attend an identity parade, it was said.
Two people in the area at the time took part in a procedure to try to identify the rapist where witnesses are asked to view a screen of a number of faces, including the suspect.
Jurors heard they both picked out an image of Andrew as the suspect along with the victim and he was charged that day.
Mr Price told jurors it may seem difficult to believe three people could all identify the wrong man, adding: “Yet the evidence now available demonstrates, it is submitted, that they did.”
Quinn, 51, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm and attempting to choke or strangle his victim to render her unconscious.
The trial continues.
