DNA from rape victim 'not linked to man jailed'

A DNA sample taken from a rape victim in 2003 had no link to a man who was wrongly jailed for 17 years for the attack, a court has heard.

Forensic testing for crime scene DNA has improved massively since Andrew Malkinson was jailed, the jury in the trial of Paul Quinn, at Manchester Crown Court, was told.

Malkinson spent 17 years behind bars after he was picked out in an identity parade in error by three witnesses, even though none of his DNA was found linking him to the rape in Little Hulton, Salford.

Quinn, 51, has pleaded not guilty to rape, strangulation and inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent.

The victim, a woman in her 30s, had been dragged from the street beside a motorway embankment, brutally beaten and raped twice, in the early hours of 19 July 2003.

The court heard a DNA sample - not linked to Malkinson - was later recovered from clothing of the victim in 2007, and the source was designated "Unknown Male 1".

The discovery "ought to have set alarm bells ringing", the court was told, but it was only in 2022 that police matched the DNA sample left on a vest top belonging to the victim to the DNA profile of Quinn.

Emma McCarthy, a forensic scientist and DNA and crime scene expert, said a sample from the vest top worn was tested in 2003, and no DNA present was linked to Malkinson.

McCarthy told the jury: "Because we know techniques, and our techniques have improved massively in 20 years, we re-extracted to see if we could remove any more DNA.

"We know all of our techniques have improved, our way of recording DNA is better.

"Also, testing is much more sensitive."

Jurors heard later that testing of DNA recovered from the victim's top estimated it was at least one billion times more likely that Quinn's DNA was a contributor to the sample, than that it was not.

McCarthy, asked to quantify the statistics, said, as a comparison, a million seconds amounts to about 11 days, while a billion seconds amounts to 35 years.

Earlier, John Price KC, prosecuting, told jurors the emergence of DNA evidence linking Quinn to the attack had been a "slow burn" process over the years, as techniques had developed.

Malkinson, now 60, and originally from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, was released from jail in 2020.

He had made multiple appeals for authorities to review his case before his final attempt led to his appeal against his conviction being granted by the Court of Appeal.

Father-of-five Quinn, who moved from Salford to Exeter, Devon, after he separated and divorced in 2016, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm and strangulation.

The trial continues.

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