Woman who Andrew Malkinson was wrongly accused of raping was told by police her doubts about him being the culprit were 'trial nerves', court told
A rape victim told a court she had doubts after picking out a man at an identity parade who was later wrongly jailed - but was told by police it was just 'trial nerves'.
Andrew Malkinson, 60, spent nearly 20 years behind bars after he was identified by the woman, who was brutally attacked and raped in Little Hulton, Salford, in 2003.
However Mr Malkinson, who worked as a security guard, became the 'victim of a most terrible miscarriage of justice, one of the worst there has been' after 17 years in prison, Manchester Crown Court heard.
The rape victim is now giving trial evidence a second time, after Mr Malkinson was exonerated and fresh DNA evidence linked another local man, Paul Quinn, 51, to the attack, which he denies.
The woman, at the time in her 30s and a mother of young children, was walking home in the early hours of the morning in the height of summer when she was attacked from behind.
She was strangled unconscious, beaten and twice raped in a 'prolonged assault' down a motorway embankment.
The woman picked out Mr Malkinson at a 'VIPER' digital ID parade days after the attack on July 19, 2003.
At the trial the following year, doubts crept in - but she told the jury that police had told her not to worry, as it was normal to have second thoughts due to 'trial nerves'.
Andrew Malkinson spent 17 years behind bars for a rape he didn't commit. His conviction was overturned in July 2023
Lisa Wilding KC, representing Quinn, said: 'At no stage, after that day in 2004, did you go to the police and say "I have got that wrong."'
The woman, who cannot be identified, replied: 'I did. I remember one of the trials telling one of them, I was not too sure it was the right man and they said, "Don't worry, it's just trial nerves".
'I was very naive, I was scared coming into the court. I was reassured it was fine, it was the right man.
'I said "I was not sure it was the right man" and he said it was trial nerves and a lot of people think this and it will be okay.'
Ms Wilding continued: 'Who said that? A policeman?'
'Yes,' the witness replied.
Ms Wilding said: 'If that was right, you could have said "I'm not sure" but you didn't.'
The witness replied: 'No, because I was reassured, I got nervous and the evidence, the process of the court, it was not just on my identification.
'The other things will tell whether he was guilty or not.
'I said I was unsure because I had not seen the other gentleman with glasses on, so it threw me a bit.
'I was unsure, then reassured, it was just nerves. I was reassured that it was normal to have second thoughts.'
Earlier, jurors heard Mr Malkinson first appealed against his conviction in 2006, but this was dismissed.
He then made two more attempts, in 2009 and 2018, to ask the Criminal Cases Review Commission to send his case to the Court of Appeal, but both times were rejected.
His final attempt in 2021 led to his appeal against his conviction being allowed by the Court of Appeal.
Quinn, aged 29 at the time of the attack, lived locally before moving to Exeter, Devon.
He was only linked to the crime years later, after scientific advances matched his DNA profile from samples left on the victim.
Paul Quinn is accused of a 2003 rape in Salford, Greater Manchester for which Mr Malkinson wrongly spent 17 years behind bars, a jury has heard
The DNA findings estimate it would be at least one billion times more likely if Quinn was a contributor to the sample found at the crime scene than if he was not.
Jurors heard that after news broke in July 2022 that detectives had linked an unknown suspect through a DNA breakthrough, police analysis of the defendant's internet usage showed Quinn had searched on Google 'Why do I keep sweating all the time?' and 'How long is DNA kept in database?'.
The defendant has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm and attempting to choke or strangle his victim to render her unconscious while he carried out the attack.
The court previously heard on March 4 that trial evidence including DNA 'proves... that it was Paul Quinn and not Andrew Malkinson' who attacked and raped the woman in 2003.
As he opened the prosecution case to the jury, John Price KC said Mr Malkinson 'was the victim of a most terrible miscarriage of justice, one of the worst there has been'.
He added that identification of Mr Malkinson as the attacker by the woman and two witnesses was 'honestly and genuinely made but, we submit, mistaken'.
During the attack, the victim's left nipple was 'partially severed' by what a pathologist concluded was a bite, the jury heard.
This was an 'important' element of the case against Quinn as DNA matching him was recovered from traces of saliva in the left-hand side of the vest top she was wearing, Mr Price said.
Cleggs Lane in Little Hulton, where Quinn is accused of the rape of a lone woman for which Andrew Malkinson wrongly convicted
It was a 'sad' and 'remarkable' element of the case that this finding came to light as part of Mr Malkinson's efforts to clear his name, jurors were told.
'Alarm bells' about whether Mr Malkinson might have been wrongly convicted ought to have rung as far back as 2007 when tests pinpointed male DNA which was not his, Mr Price said.
But it was only in November 2022 that the profile was traced to Quinn, the court heard, with the chances of it belonging to anyone else placed at less than one in one billion.
Interviewed by police, Quinn claimed he had been 'highly promiscuous' between the age of 18 and his mid-30s and had 'slept with literally hundreds of women', never wearing a condom.
He later claimed to have had two sexual partners every weekend, meaning he had sex with as many as 1,800 women over the time period.
This claim of 'rampant, sexual profligacy' implies his account was that the 2003 victim could have been one of those consensual partners, jurors were told.
Quinn denied raping her but said he couldn’t recall if they'd ever had sex.
He denies all the allegations he faces.
The trial continues.
