Rapist guilty of attack on woman that saw innocent man jailed for 17 years

A rapist who kept his freedom while an innocent man spent 17 years in prison for his ‘horrific’ attack has finally been brought to justice.

Paul Quinn, 51, targeted a lone woman who was walking home alone in Little Hulton, Salford, in the early hours of July 19, 2003.

The victim, in her 30s and a mum to young children, was strangled until she passed out, beaten and twice raped in a ‘prolonged assault’ then left for dead.

Andrew Malkinson was inexplicably identified as the perpetrator by three people and jailed a year later, becoming ‘the victim a most terrible miscarriage of justice, one of the worst there has been’.

Quinn, who at the time lived less than a mile from the scene of the attack, was only linked to the crime years later after scientific advances unearthed a billion-to-one DNA match.

Mr Malkinson launched several unsuccessful appeals against his conviction, first in 2006 and then again in 2009 and 2018, before he was eventually released in December 2020.

His conviction was overturned in July 2023.

Jurors at Manchester Crown Court heard the victim expressed doubts about her identification of the attacker ahead of Mr Malkinson’s trial.

The woman, who cannot be identified, said: ‘I was not too sure it was the right man and [the police officer] said, “Don’t worry, it’s just trial nerves”.

‘I was very naïve. I was scared coming into the court. I was reassured it was fine, it was the right man.

‘I said, “I was not sure it was the right man” and he said it was trial nerves and a lot of people think this and it will be OK.’

The DNA hit also ‘ought to have set alarm bells ringing’ when it was initially discovered in 2007 – 13 years before he was freed, jurors heard.

News that police had found new DNA evidence emerged in August 2022.

Over the next several months, Quinn made hundreds of internet searches about the case, including ‘how long id DNA kept in a database’ and ‘why do I keep sweating all the time’.

Quinn was arrested in December 2022 and was asked by detectives to explain the DNA hit on the woman’s clothing.

He brazenly told police that his lifestyle between 1992 and 2010 was to go out partying with friends every weekend, taking drugs and having sex with two or three women a night, every weekend.

If true, jurors were told, this would mean that in those years, he will have had casual sex with about 2,700 local women.

They were played footage of his police interview, when a detective asks: ‘You are trying to explain away the DNA, by making out you have slept with the majority of Manchester, over a 16-year period.’

Quinn replies: ‘It could’ve been from contact with her.

‘I have not beat her, I have not raped her. If I had done it, I would’ve told you because I would’ve been ashamed, but I haven’t done it.’

Cross-examining Quinn, prosecutor John Price KC suggested Quinn’s internet searches showed he had looked up Mr Malkinson’s case before his campaign against his wrongful conviction hit the headlines.

Mr Price said: ‘It looks, Mr Quinn, as though you knew that might be a wrongful conviction long before anybody else. It seems like that way.’

Quinn replied: ‘Yes, but it’s not that way, it may seem so.’

Mr Price continued: ‘Well, I’m going to suggest that the explanation is, in September 2019, there were two people who knew Mr Malkinson’s was a wrongful conviction. Him and you. Is that the truth?’

‘No,’ Quinn replied.

Mr Price said: ‘And you knew that his was a wrongful conviction, because you knew the person who attacked the victim was you?’

‘No,’ Quinn again replied.

Quinn will be sentenced later.

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