Andrew Malkinson has called on ministers to scrap the ‘vindictive’ rules that mean that a victim of a miscarriage of justice has to pay their own expert or legal fees to prove their own innocence. Speaking in a new BBC Radio 4 podcast Shadow World, Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison before having his conviction overturned, faced a bill of around £10,000 for such services which will come out of his compensation. He has called upon the Deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy, to look into the issue
’It feels vindictive,’ he told the BBC. ‘Why doesn’t the state, the perpetrator of the injustice, pay the costs, the experts and the legal fees? Because they did the damage, not me.’ The Ministry of Justice has increased the maximum compensation payable for miscarriages to £1.3 million. For more on the campaign to ensure that victims of miscarriages justice receive proper compensation, see here.
The Shadow World Stolen Years podcast is made by Jemma Gander and Fran Robertson of Two Step Films who have followed Malkinson’s case for the last six years (and who write for PROOF, issue 7 on the Joe Outlaw case and IPPs). ‘I made a film about his fight to overturn his conviction, but the story didn’t end with his exoneration,’ Gander says. The recording of the podcasts coincides with the trial of Paul Quinn for the brutal rape that Andrew Malkinson was convicted of. Quinn’s trial took place in the same courtroom that Malkinson was convicted in back in 2004. Jemma Gander makes the point that Quinn’s defence team had been working on his case for over 18 months. ‘In contrast,’ she said, ‘Andy’s legal team only took on his case a few weeks before trial, Andy had asked that the trial be postponed, but that didn’t happen.’
Malkinson always felt that his defence let him down. The only evidence against him was eye witness identifications and the prosecution argued that the absence of DNA could be explained by the fact that Andy was ‘forensically aware’ and had done everything he could to ensure that no DNA was left on the victim. As Malkinson put it: ‘They were saying the absence of evidence is evidence against me.’ He later discovered his own solicitor had been struck off 10 years earlier, convicted and imprisoned for fraud.’
Malkinson told the podcast that he hoped the police who were responsible would be held to account. ‘I’m not confident, because I don’t think any policeman has ever been convicted for wrongful conviction,’ he said. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is reviewing the case. Six officers are under investigation, five have been served with notices for gross misconduct and one is under investigation for potential misconduct in a public office.
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