Where is Andrew Malkinson now?
The BBC documentary ‘The Wrong Man: 17 Years Behind Bars’ tells the story of Andrew Malkinson, a Grimsby man who was convicted of the rape of a woman in Salford in 2003.
As the title of the documentary suggests, the police arrested the wrong man. Andrew was innocent but this fact was dismissed by the police whose failings led to him being put behind bars.
In this article, we take a brief look at this miscarriage of justice and ask the question: Where is Andrew Malkinson now?
What happened to Andrew Malkinson?
Grimsby-born Andrew Malkinson was 37 years of age when, in July 2003, he was wrongly accused of trying to rape and kill a 33-year-old woman in Salford, Greater Manchester. He was arrested in Grimsby while visiting family.
Despite Andrew’s protestations of innocence, he was charged with the crime, even though there was no forensic evidence to support the police’s claims that he was guilty.
A lack of DNA evidence wasn’t the only reason why Andrew should never have been arrested. For one thing, he didn’t match the description that the Salford woman gave about her attacker. The victim had also told police that she had scratched the face of her assailant. But there was no sign of a scratch on Andrew’s face.
At the court hearing in Manchester, two so-called ‘honest witnesses’ claimed they had seen Andrew on the night he supposedly raped the victim. However, it was later discovered that these witnesses weren’t as ‘honest’ as the police had claimed. They both had criminal convictions and one of them had a heroin addiction, which he had discussed on the Jeremy Kyle Show. There is a suggestion in the documentary that the police knew they weren’t credible witnesses.
Despite there being a lack of proper evidence to convict Andrew, he was still found guilty by the jury. On the 30th of March 2004, he began his life sentence at HM Prison Falkland in Durham.
When was Andrew Malkinson released from prison?
Andrew Malkinson continued to protest his innocence while behind bars. In 2006, he tried to appeal against his conviction but this was dismissed.
In 2007, a nationwide review of forensics in historic rape and murder cases revealed that the DNA found on the Salford victim’s top didn’t match Andrew’s DNA. In light of this evidence, Andrew applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in 2009 to reopen his case, but they refused his application.
In 2017, a charity law practice known as APPEAL took on Andrew’s case and unearthed new evidence that proved his innocence. He was released from prison in 2020 but it wasn’t until July 2023, after another application to the CCRC, that his conviction was quashed.
When Andrew spoke to the media, he had this to say about his wrongful conviction:
“I spent 17 years on my guard against every threat. I imagined I would die in prison, murdered by another prisoner. I am not a liar. I am not in denial. Greater Manchester Police are liars and they are in denial.”
Where is Andrew Malkinson now?
According to recent reports, Andrew Malkinson is now living in a one-bedroom council flat in southern England.
In an interview with The Guardian in May 2024, he said he is still awaiting compensation from the state. In the meantime, he’s living on benefits while making use of a local food kitchen.
While Andrew is now a free man, his ordeal isn’t over, as he is struggling with mental health issues as a consequence of his conviction. He is currently receiving counselling from a charity.
Greater Manchester Police and the CCRC have both apologised for their failings to Andrew but these apologies have come 17 years too late. Andrew might be a free man now but he still lives with the memories of his time in prison and the fact that a good chunk of his life was spent behind bars for a crime he did not commit.
Read More: The Wrong Man: 17 Years Behind Bars Review
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