Andrew Malkinson: £1m compensation ‘not enough’ after miscarriage of justice

A man who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit says £1 million is “not enough” to recompense him for his trauma.

The highest sum of compensation awarded under the miscarriage of justice compensation programme – £1 million for more than ten years’ incarceration – was attacked by Andrew Malkinson, according to the Daily Mail on Monday.

On July 26, appeals courts overturned the 57-year-old’s conviction after DNA evidence linked another man to the crime was presented.

He told the newspaper: “It’s pretty lamentable. £1 million sounds like a lot of money, but that represents nearly two decades of living hell and lost opportunities and lost love and everything else that makes life precious.

“It’s capped at ten years, but what happens to people like me who’ve spent much longer than ten years (in prison), almost double? It seems very unfair.

“I don’t think any amount would be enough, but it should be significantly higher than it is.”

Mr Malkinson is now pushing for more improvements after it was announced on Sunday that wrongfully convicted persons will no longer have their living costs covering their time in jail deducted from compensation payouts, following new guidelines from ministers.

“It says a lot about our justice system that this perverse rule was introduced in the first place,” he told the Daily Mail.

“I hope the minister will now meet with me to discuss the many other reforms needed to stop others having to fight for 20 years to get justice.”

On Sunday, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk KC implemented the reform.

Downing Street said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak thought the deductions were unreasonable, despite calls to remove the levies.

Mr Malkinson was concerned that the guidelines would allow expenses to be deducted from any compensation claim he could receive to offset the costs of his prison sentence.

After he was released, Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Jackson apologised to Mr Malkinson for the “grave miscarriage of justice” he had suffered and offered to meet with him.

But he told the newspaper: “I do not want to be in the room with anyone from that police force, of whatever rank.

“To suddenly show contrition now, at the 11th hour, seems very hollow. I do not believe them. And I do not think they care about me, or about the truth.”

He compared prison to a “North Korean totalitarian state with Big Brother watching over you” and said he was frightened of being attacked by other convicts because he was housed on a vulnerable prisoners wing.

“You’d think that would offer some protection, but in fact there are prisoners who have been transferred from the mains,” Mr Malkinson said.

“I spent a lot of the time being terrified.

“You know when you are on the bus and there is one lunatic who wants to sit beside you, and everyone tries to avoid him? It’s like that, but you can’t get off the bus. There was a murder on the wing.

“There were people who hanged themselves. You feel you could easily be stabbed. Someone could come in at any moment and shank you.”

He reportedly stated that since his discharge, he has struggled with how to deal with women.

On whether he feels he could ever have a relationship again, Mr Malkinson said: “I don’t know if I’m too damaged, because I am damaged.

“It would be nice to think that I could, but I can’t see it yet.”

Mr Malkinson was wrongfully convicted of raping a lady in Greater Manchester in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum period of seven years the following year.

He was sentenced to an additional ten years in prison because he maintained his innocence.