Man found guilty of rape that led to Andrew Malkinson’s wrongful imprisonment

A man who evaded justice for more than two decades has been found guilty of the 2003 rape for which Andrew Malkinson was wrongfully jailed for 17 years.

Paul Quinn, 52, was convicted by a jury on Friday after a fresh forensic analysis found traces of his DNA on the victim.

It can now be revealed that Quinn, a father of six, is being investigated as a potential suspect in other serious sexual assaults, including three rapes that took place while he was at large.

Greater Manchester police are now facing questions about why he was not investigated at the time despite being a convicted sex offender who lived near the scene of the attack.

Instead, detectives focused on Malkinson, who was jailed in 2004 and went on to spend 17 years in prison while protesting his innocence.

His conviction was eventually quashed in 2023, becoming one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in modern British history.

A jury at Manchester crown court was told that Quinn’s DNA was identified on samples of the victim’s clothing in October 2022 after a fresh forensic review.

Police and prosecutors knew as long ago as 2007 that an unidentified man’s DNA was found on the victim but decided not to carry out further tests at the time.

The organisation responsible for investigating potential miscarriages of justice, the Criminal Cases Review Commission, also declined to commission further forensic work and refused twice to refer Malkinson’s case to the court of appeal.

An investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating five former Greater Manchester police officers on suspicion of gross misconduct, including one who is under criminal investigation. A sixth officer, still serving at GMP, is being investigated on suspicion of misconduct.

The police watchdog is examining GMP’s destruction of evidence in the Malkinson case, its failure to disclose the criminal histories of two key witnesses in the 2004 trial, and whether those witnesses were offered incentives to testify against the innocent man.

Quinn admitted in court that it was his DNA on items of the victim’s clothing, including a vest top above her left nipple that had been partly severed in the attack.

He suggested the woman, who was 33 at the time, may have been one of “hundreds” of local women he claimed to have “copped off with” in Little Hulton, Greater Manchester.

Quinn had lived in the area all of his life until he moved to Exeter in 2017 over what police said they believed was a drug debt he owed.