He was wrongly locked up for 17 years – but Andrew Malkinson is one of the lucky ones

Why did the authority that investigates miscarriages of justice ignore vital new DNA samples that would clear a man of rape? What excuse did they give for sitting on the evidence – handed over to them by the police – for four years? The answer is truly shocking, writes chancellor of the University of Manchester and former chief crown prosecutor for North West England Nazir Afzal

Andrew Malkinson spent nearly two decades in prison after a false rape conviction (PA Wire)

It might seem odd – offensive, even – to describe as “lucky” a man who was wrongly convicted of a heinous sexual offence, and who served 17 and a half years in prison before being released to attempt to rebuild his life whilst branded as a registered sex offender and subject to onerous licence conditions.

None of us can begin to contemplate the immense trauma that has been endured by Andrew Malkinson and his loved ones in the decades in which he described himself as having been “kidnapped” by the state before his conviction was finally quashed by the Court of Appeal last month.

Yet it has become increasingly clear that Mr Malkinson was extremely lucky to have managed to overturn his wrongful conviction at all due to serious failings from every part of the criminal justice system, including the public body which was established with statutory authority to investigate miscarriages of justice, the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The CCRC was established in the wake of a series of serious miscarriages of justice – notably the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six – which had raised serious questions about the weaknesses of the criminal justice system and the ability of the system to recognise and remedy wrongful convictions.