Father of 6 imprisoned for rape following one of UK’s worst miscarriages of justice

LONDON (AP) — A father of six was sentenced Friday to 21 years in prison for a rape 23 years ago that another man had been wrongly convicted of, in what is widely considered to have been one of the U.K.’s worst miscarriages of justice in recent years.

Paul Quinn, 52, was found guilty in April following a six-week trial at Manchester Crown Court on two counts of rape, one count of choking with intent, and one count of grievous bodily harm. Quinn’s sentence comprises 21 years in custody with an extended license of three years when he will be let out of prison but subject to release conditions. He will be eligible for parole in 14 years.

“You sat back and enjoyed your liberty at the expense of an innocent man,” Justice Robert Bright told Quinn at Friday’s sentencing hearing.

Quinn was aged 29 at the time of the rape but had been a sex offender from the age of 12.

Andrew Malkinson, 60, had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal in July 2023 after DNA evidence linked Quinn to the crime. Malkinson spent 17 years behind bars for the brutal 2003 attack on a 33-year-old woman in Greater Manchester, who had picked him out from a police lineup.

Malkinson, who was working as a security guard at a local shopping center at the time of the attack, was found guilty in 2004 and sentenced to a life sentence, with a minimum term of seven years. He always maintained his innocence and as a result served ten years more in jail than the minimum sanctioned by the judge in the case. He was eventually released from prison in 2020, but his name remained on Britain’s sex offenders register.

Malkinson voiced his fury at the fact that Quinn did not get a life sentence.

“I hope that this man does not get parole and that he serves longer than me,” he said in a statement released through Appeal, a U.K. charity that campaigns against wrongful convictions. “Anything less is not justice.”

Advancements in genetic technology allowed Malkinson’s legal team and Appeal to find Quinn’s DNA on fragments of the victim’s clothing.

Malkinson is seeking recompense from British authorities for the time he spent in prison and has mulled whether the victim had been unduly pressured by police during the lineup.

“While Andy is relieved this chapter of his ordeal is now closed, it is not the end of this matter as far as he is concerned,” said Toby Wilton, of law firm Hickman & Rose, which represents Malkinson.

Fallout from the case continues, with a public inquiry now underway after a 2024 review found failings that could have exonerated Malkinson a decade before he was eventually released.

Five former Greater Manchester Police officers, and one currently serving with the force, are under investigation while two top officials at the body that assesses potential miscarriages of justice have resigned.

The police force has since apologized to Malkinson.

“We know this outcome has come two decades too late for those impacted by this case,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Rebecca McKendrick, the senior investigating officer on the case. “However, we will not allow time to be a barrier to justice for anyone who has further information about Paul Quinn and any further potential sexual offending.”