Andrew Malkinson case to be reviewed by body that investigates miscarriages of justice
The body responsible for investigating miscarriages of justice has opened a review into its handling of the Andrew Malkinson case after it twice refused to refer it to the court of appeal.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) said its chair, Helen Pitcher, met the lord chancellor on Wednesday to discuss the case.
Malkinson, 57, spent 17 years in prison for a 2003 stranger rape in Greater Manchester that he did not commit. He was cleared by the court of appeal last month after spending two decades trying to convince the authorities he was innocent because fresh DNA testing linked another man to the crime.
The CCRC made the announcement after the Guardian revealed on Wednesday that DNA evidence linking the crime to another man was discovered in 2007. Despite this, the CCRC twice declined to order further forensic testing, or refer the case for appeal, meaning he stayed in prison for another 13 years.
The CCRC said the review would look at the decisions and actions taken in relation to Malkinson’s applications to the body and will be led by a king’s counsel from outside the organisation, with experience of prosecution and defence.
Malkinson has called on Pitcher to resign and apologise over the commission’s handling of his case but she has so far issued no apology or spoken in public about the case. A petition calling for an apology and an independent review of the CCRC’s handling of the case gained more than 140,000 signatures.
A CCRC spokesperson said: “A review into the decisions taken in Mr Malkinson’s case couldn’t be started until we had the judgment from the court of appeal, but we have long recognised that it would be important to have one.
“We will be as open as we can be within our statutory constraints with the findings of the completed review and the lessons to be learned.
“This is a complex case in which many elements have informed the decisions taken.
“We recognise that Mr Malkinson has had a very long journey to clear his name, and it is plainly wrong that he spent 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
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“We have already been in touch with Greater Manchester police and with the Crown Prosecution Service to offer our assistance in any of their inquiries.”
The case log for his first application to the CCRC in 2009 showed that concerns about costs were raised multiple times.