The $30 million miscarriage of justice

A 24-year sentence for Paul Quinn, who spent 23 years enjoying his freedom after being wrongly convicted of rape. The case raises questions about police and prosecutorial failures.

Paul Quinn has been sentenced to 24 years for a 2003 rape after Andrew Malkinson served 17 years for the crime he did not commit. The victim endured a violent attack and permanent disfigurement, while Quinn lived freely for over two decades.

An echo of Sydney's 2024 institutional buy-up

New DNA evidence finally linked Quinn to the crime in 2023, exposing a severe miscarriage of justice and raising questions about police and prosecutorial failures. A serial sex offender who strangled a woman unconscious and raped her has finally been jailed after an innocent suspect spent 17 years in prison.

In one of Britain's worst ever miscarriages of justice, Andrew Malkinson was wrongly convicted of raping the young mother on a motorway embankment in 2003. Her attacker was in fact Paul Quinn, a hard-drinking, divorced father of six, who claims to have had consensual sex with hundreds of women as a young man.

Who is the unnamed buyer?

The victim, who was in her 30s at the time of the attack and has been left permanently disfigured, described how she 'lives in constant fear that someone is behind me'. The rape took place in the early hours of Saturday, July 19, 2003, as she walked home through Salford, Greater Manchester.

She heard 'footsteps', she told the jury in the original trial, then to her terror 'felt this force from behind'.. Tearfully, she told how she desperately tried to fight off her attacker as he strangled her. From left: A custody image of Andrew Malkinson after his arrest in 2003, an e-fit image created of the attacker based on the victim's descritpion, and an image of Paul Quinn taken in 2005

Tehran's two-track response

In 2023, new analysis of DNA taken from the victim's clothing provided a one-in-a-billion match to a sample given by Quinn over a decade earlier.. However the trial has left police and prosecutors facing questions as to why doubts over Mr Malkinson's conviction were not acted on sooner.

Andrew Malkinson had his conviction quashed in 2023 after years protesting his innocence Rapist Paul Quinn spent 23 years enjoying his freedom, becoming a grandfather,splitting from his wife, moving to Devon and starting a new relationship

Broader context

The case raises questions about police and prosecutorial failures. The victim, who was in her 30s at the time of the attack and has been left permanently disfigured, described how she 'lives in constant fear that someone is behind me'. the rape took place in the early hours of Saturday, July 19, 2003, as she walked home through Salford, Greater Manchester.

She heard 'footsteps', she told the jury in the original trial, then to her terror 'felt this force from behind'. tearfully, she told how she desperately tried to fight off her attacker as he strangled her.

Open questions

Why were doubts over Mr Malkinson's conviction not acted on sooner? What led to the delay in re-examining the case? The trial has left police and prosecutors facing questions about their handling of the case.