Criminal review board 'sorry' for failing Andrew Malkinson

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has offered an "unreserved apology" to an innocent man who spent 17 years in prison.

Andrew Malkinson was wrongly convicted of raping a woman in Salford in 2003, but was exonerated in July 2023 by DNA testing.

CCRC chairwoman Helen Pitcher said she was "deeply sorry" for "failing" Mr Malkinson.

In response, he criticised her for waiting until the conclusion of an independent review before offering the apology, calling it "too little, too late".

Mr Malkinson, originally from Grimsby, was formally acquitted in July 2023 but it later emerged that DNA implicating another suspect was discovered four years after he was jailed.

He had written to the CCRC, the body set up to review criminal convictions and check for potential miscarriages of justice, asking it to refer his case to the Court of Appeal in 2009.

In 2012 it refused to do so and also refused new forensic testing, before declining a second application in 2020.

Mr Malkinson said: "It is hard for me to see sincerity in an apology after all this time.

"When you are truly sorry for what you have done, you respond immediately and instinctively, it wells up in you."

In her apology, Ms Pitcher had said that "there may have been a belief that I have been unwilling ever to apologise to Mr Malkinson," and that she wanted to "clarify that this is not the case".

She said: "For me, offering a genuine apology required a clear understanding of the circumstances in which the commission failed Mr Malkinson. We now have that."

The victim of the rape, a 33-year-old mother of two, had been followed by a man and choked unconscious as she walked in the Little Hulton area of Salford in July 2003.

Mr Malkinson, who had been working in the area as a security guard, was sentenced to life in prison for the attack the following year - with reports from the time describing how he had been shouting out, "protesting his innocence" from the dock.

He was released from prison on licence in 2020, but his case was not referred to the Court of Appeal until January 2023, when the CCRC said fresh DNA testing had identified a new suspect.

Greater Manchester Police apologised for what it described as a "grave miscarriage of justice".

In August 2023, barrister Chris Henley KC was appointed to carry out an independent review into the CCRC's role in Mr Malkinson's case.

Ms Pitcher said Mr Henley's report had "made sobering reading", and that she had written to Mr Malkinson to offer her "sincere regret" and share an "unreserved apology on behalf of the commission".

"Nobody can ever begin to imagine the devastating impact that Mr Malkinson's wrongful conviction has had on his life, and I can only apologise for the additional harm caused to him by our handling of his case", she added.

However Mr Malkinson accused Ms Pitcher of "only apologising because the CCRC has been found out".

He said that previous requests for an apology were met with a letter from Ms Pitcher that was sent to his lawyer in September.

He said she had disagreed with many of the criticisms of the CCRC's handling of the case.

"That smacks to me of someone who is in denial and not fit to lead a body which is meant to be dedicated to rooting out failings in our justice system", he said.

Mr Malkinson called on Justice Secretary Alex Chalk to "bring in new leadership" at the CCRC.

He added: "Others must not be let down as I was.

"The CCRC should be led by people with empathy, humility, and a track record of fighting injustice."

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