‘Rapist’ who pounced on lone lady and strangled her in 2003 was traced by DNA after harmless man spent 17 years in jail in a ‘horrible miscarriage of justice’, jury hears

A ‘rapist’ who pounced on a woman in 2003 was finally traced by his DNA after an innocent man spent 17 years behind bars in a ‘terrible miscarriage of justice’, a jury was told today.

Andrew Malkinson was finally freed from jail in 2020 having been wrongly convicted of the attack on a motorway embankment in Salford, Greater Manchester based on ‘mistaken’ identification by witnesses, a court heard.

But it was not until 2022 that Paul Quinn, now 51, was arrested after being traced due to his DNA being found on the alleged victim’s clothing and body, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Quinn ‘strenuously’ denies strangling the woman and raping her while she was unconscious on July 19, 2003, John Price KC said as he opened the prosecution case to the jury.

He told them that Mr Malkinson ‘was the victim of a most terrible miscarriage of justice, one of the worst there has been’.

He said identification of Mr Malkinson as the attacker by the woman and two witnesses was ‘honestly and genuinely made but, we submit, mistaken’.

Subsequent evidence including DNA ‘proves… that it was Paul Quinn and not Andrew Malkinson’ who attacked and raped the woman in 2003, he said.

A dog walker named Philip Coucill encountered the ‘distressed’ and ‘dazed’ woman close to the M61 motorway between Salford and Bolton woman at around 5.30am that day, Mr Price said.

At the time, he told police she begged him: ‘Can you help me?’

‘I turned and at that point I saw a lot of blood round her face and the left side of her face was swollen,’ Mr Coucill told police.

‘I said to her “What’s happened to you, who has given you a pasting?”

‘She then said: “I have been attacked and raped”.’

He called police, with the woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – later telling detectives she had been walking home when she was ‘attacked by a stranger’.

She suffered a ‘prolonged assault’ during which she was ‘subjected to sexual violence of the gravest kind,’ Mr Price said.

The woman was beaten about the face and strangled until she was unconscious before being raped twice, he told jurors.

When she had ‘come to’, her clothing was ‘in disarray’ and her attacker had gone, Mr Price said.

He had taken her mobile phone with her, meaning she could not call police herself.

She had suffered physical injuries including a fractured left cheekbone, jurors were told – probably while unconscious and therefore ‘insensible and defenceless’.

That day she told police her attacker was a stranger and described him as: ‘Gypsy type, muscular, dark hair, off white shirt, hanging off.’

She said she had scratched her assailant’s face on the right hand side, causing the tip of one of her fingernails to snap off.

In a full statement the following day she said he was olive skinned and tanned, about 5ft 8in tall and of muscular build with good ‘pecs’.

He had a ‘shiny hairless chest’ with dark hair with a wave in it, was aged in his early to mid-30s, and had an accent ‘local to Bolton with a slight trace of another accent’.

He wore dark trousers and a white shirt with a collar that was completely unbuttoned down the front.

Police officers immediately suspected her description matched Mr Malkinson, who they had previously encountered.

The following day they spoke to him at the shopping centre in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire where he worked as a security guard, although he did not have a scratch mark on his face.

However at the time Mr Malkinson lived just 1.5 miles from the scene of the alleged rape, meaning he had ‘an opportunity’ to attack her, Mr Price said.

The following month, Mr Malkinson – who by then had moved to Grimsby – was arrested, and the rape victim picked out his face in a digital identification procedure.

Another witness, Beverley Craig, who had told police she saw a man with an unbuttoned shirt hiding in bushes around an hour earlier, initially picked out a different image.

However minutes later she ‘corrected’ herself and picked out Mr Malkinson, the court heard.

Four months later Ms Craig’s partner, Michael Seward – who had been with her – also picked out Mr Malkinson.

Mr Malkinson stood trial in 2004 and was convicted of the rape, ultimately serving 17 years behind bars before being freed.

Jurors were told that in the meantime, DNA matching Quinn was found on her body and clothing.

Mr Price said there was ‘no alternative plausible explanation’ for how it came to be there other than Quinn being her attacker.

He showed them pictures of Quinn from around the time of the attack – when he was 29 – in one of which Mr Price said it could be seen that he had a ‘very hairy chest’.

In addition, his appearance at the time closely matched the description given by the victim and witness, Mr Price said – ‘even though he was a man who, normally had a hairy chest’.

Mr Price said it was a case of ‘great seriousness’.

After the jury was sworn in, the judge, Mr Justice Bright, warned them not to carry out their own research online.

He told them it would be ‘agony’ for both the complainant and accused if anything happened to jeopardise the trial, saying they had both been ‘waiting long enough’ for it to start.

‘Resist the temptation – just don’t,’ the judge added.

Quinn is charged with two counts of rape, as well as causing GBH and attempting to choke or strangle with intent to commit an offence.

He denies all the allegations he faces. 

The trial continues.