Innocent man wrongly jailed nearly 20 years for rape he didn’t commit reveals he ‘fantasised about dying’ while in prison but clung on because he wanted to clear his name

• Andrew Malkinson, 57, spent 17 years in jail for a rape he did not commit  

An innocent man who was wrongly jailed for nearly two decades for a rape he did not commit confessed he ‘fantasised’ about dying while in prison but clung on to prove his innocence.

Andrew Malkinson, now 57, finally won his 20-year-battle to clear his name after he was convicted of raping a woman after a trial in Greater Manchester in 2003, in what the former security guard has now slammed as a ‘set up’.

The following year he was jailed for a life with a minimum term of seven years but remained in prison for a further 10 because he maintained he was innocent as he continued to live out a ‘joyless existence’ behind bars. 

And this week the Court of Appeal finally agreed with him – his sentence was quashed after recently emerged DNA evidence points towards another, unknown suspect.

Speaking days after his conviction was ruled unsafe, Mr Malkinson harrowingly revealed that he thought he would very likely die in prison. It was only the thought of his mother, Trisha Hose, 70, and his unwavering drive to prove his innocence that kept him going.

This week Andrew Malkinson, now 57, finally won his 20-year-battle to clear his name after he was convicted of raping a woman after a trial in Greater Manchester in 2003

The father-of-one was jailed for a life with a minimum term of seven years but remained in prison for a further 10 because he maintained he was innocent

‘I thought, I’m going to live and show them the truth someday, one day,’ he told the Telegraph.

‘I’ve always known I’m innocent. The fact they’ve overturned it is vindication, but they’re just confirming the earth isn’t flat to me.’

Earlier this week the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) admitted the conviction was unsafe because there ‘must now be a real possibility’ Mr B will be charged with the attack.

Mr Malkinson, who is originally from Grimsby, was released on a strict life licence in December 2020 and up until this week he was still labeled a rapist – ‘the worst thing a man could ever be accused of’, the innocent man said.

It led him to contemplate dying. He told the paper: ‘I didn’t want to experience any more pain. I wanted to not exist.’

At the time of the trial he said he knew ‘he was being set up’ but ‘didn’t know how.’ 

After this weeks victory, he went back to his lawyers office in Clerkenwell, east London, to celebrate before heading bac to his hotel and falling as asleep after two decades of being ’emotionally exhausted’.

During all those years in a jail cell, Mr Malkinson vowed to himself that if he ever got released he was ‘not going to shut (his) mouth)’.

The father-of-one is still coming to terms with the number of years he has lost. He says he was ‘cheated’ of his younger years,  being only 37 when he was arrested. 

Mr Malkinson outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, on May 3, 2023. He had his conviction for rape referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) over new DNA evidence

Mr Malkinson’s mother Trisha Hose outside the Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday after he was cleared

He wished to have more children, including a daughter, but he said that will ‘never’ happen now and he does not see himself being in a relationship again. 

Following the appeal decision, Mr Malkinson’s mother was ‘over the moon that it’s finally been put to rest’.

Now Mr Malkinson is living on benefits in a sea-side town, where he could be line for up to £1million for his wrongful conviction.

But he could have to pay the prison for ‘board and lodging’ fees’ at HMP Frankland and may be waiting or the sum for years. 

The innocent man was arrested on August 2003, two weeks after a young mother had been raped and left on the embankment of a motorway in Salford.

She had been left unconscious after being strangled, and had a broken neck as well as a fractured cheekbone.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) admitted the conviction was unsafe because of this, and said there ‘must now be a real possibility’ Mr B will be charged with the attack. 

Speaking outside court on Wednesday, in a speech seething with anger, the wronged man said: ‘I came to the police station in 2003. I told the officers I was innocent – they didn’t believe me.

‘I can to the Crown Court in Manchester in 2004. I told the jury I was innocent – they didn’t believe me.

Mr Malkinson said it has been 20 years since he was arrested and it has ‘taken a huge toll on his life’

Mr Malkinson’s half-sister Sarah embraces him after he was cleared of rape after 17 years

‘I came to this appeal court in 2006 and told them I was innocent – they didn’t believe me.

‘I applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is supposed to investigate miscarriages of justice and told them I was innocent.

‘They didn’t investigate and they didn’t believe me. Not once, but twice.

‘Today we told this court I was innocent and finally they listened, but I have been innocent all along for each of those 20 years that came before today. Nothing that any police officer, court or commission said about me since 2003 changed that reality.

‘You are here to gather news, that declaration from the bench behind me is not news to me. When a jury finds you guilty when you are innocent, reality does not change. You know you did not commit the crime. But all the people around you start living in a false fantasy universe and treat you as if you are guilty: the police, prison officers, probation officers, prisoners, journalists, judges.

‘As a minority of one you are forced to live their false fantasy. On August 2, 2003, I was kidnapped by the State. It has taken nearly 20 years to persuade my kidnappers to let me go.

‘Seventeen years, four months and 16 days of that time was spent in prison.

‘All that time the real preparator, the real dangerous person was free.

‘Now I am left outside this court without an apology, without an explanation, jobless, homeless, expected to simply slip back into the world.

‘I spent 17 years on my guard against every threat, 17 years counting down the minutes to lock-up so I could be behind my door and safe from other prisoners – but not safe from my own mind.

‘Imagining I would die there. Perhaps murdered in the kitchens by a fellow prisoner. Or left to die of hypoglycaemia in my cell in the night. Or being driven insane by the system and dying at my own hand.’

His mother added: ‘I have always known he did not do this terrible crime.

‘The first time I got to talk to him after his arrest he said ‘when they test the DNA they will know I am innocent’. He has been saying this same thing ever since.

‘For nearly 20 years people have assumed that I was just a loyal but deluded mother in denial about what my son was capable of doing.

‘I knew the system had got it wrong, but it seemed like there was nothing I could do about it.

‘As a mother, not being able to help your child when they are in desperate, desperate need was the most painful experience you could imagine.’

Mr Malkinson previously applied twice for his case to be reviewed by the CCRC but was turned down, eventually being released from prison in December 2020.

After his release, advancements in scientific techniques allowed his legal team, supported by legal charity Appeal, to provide new DNA analysis that cast doubt on his conviction to the CCRC.

The body then commissioned its own testing which found that DNA from the victim’s clothing matched another man on the national police database.

GMP confirmed in January that a man had been arrested and released under investigation in light of the new information, but no decision has been made as to whether he will be charged.

Source: Read Full Article