Paul Quinn set to be jailed for 2003 rape which saw innocent Andrew Malkinson spend 17 years behind bars

By KRISTINA WEMYSS, GENERAL NEWS REPORTER Published: 14:20, 5 June 2026 | Updated: 14:29, 5 June 2026 A serial sex offender who thought he had got away with a brutal rape after an innocent man was put behind bars is set to be jailed. In one of Britain’s worst ever miscarriages of justice, Andrew Malkinson spent 17 years in prison after he was wrongly convicted of raping a woman on a motorway embankment in 2003. Her attacker was in fact Paul Quinn, a hard-drinking divorced father-of-five, who claims to have had consensual sex with hundreds of women as a young man. The fence erector, 52, was found guilty of rape, strangulation and grievous bodily harm at a trial in April. Delivering his sentencing remarks today at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Mr Justice Bright said the victim was a 'hero', and that it must have been 'excruciating' for her to go through the courts twice. 'She, not you Paul, is the person from this case who I will remember for the rest of my days,' he added. The victim, who was left permanently disfigured by the attack, described how she ‘lives in constant fear that someone is behind me’. The rape took place in the early hours of Saturday, July 19, 2003, as she walked home through Salford, Greater Manchester. She heard ‘footsteps’, she told the jury in the original trial, then to her terror ‘felt this force from behind’. Tearfully, she told how she desperately tried to fight off her attacker as he strangled her. Quinn (pictured during his police interviews) told detectives he could not possibly recall all the hundreds of women he claimed to have slept with - but in court said the rape victim was not one of them From left: A custody image of Andrew Malkinson after his arrest in 2003, an e-fit image created of the attacker based on the victim's description, and an image of Paul Quinn taken in 2005 In 2023, new analysis of DNA taken from the victim’s clothing provided a one-in-a-billion match to a sample given by Quinn over a decade earlier Before losing consciousness, she scratched his face with such force that it caused the nail on the middle finger of her left hand to snap off. She suffered a fractured cheekbone, a swollen eye, and one of her nipples was partially severed by a bite. In a victim impact statement read before the court today, she said: ‘Someone has had 17 years robbed as a result of this case and that stays with me. ‘As for me, the impact of what happened will remain with me for life. Every day I look at my face and see the scarring. It is a permanent reminder of that night. In 2023, new analysis of DNA taken from the victim’s clothing provided a one-in-a-billion match to a sample given by Quinn over a decade earlier. However the trial has left police and prosecutors facing questions as to why mounting doubts about Mr Malkinson's conviction were not acted on sooner. Andrew Malkinson had his conviction quashed in 2023 after years protesting his innocence Rapist Paul Quinn spent 23 years enjoying his freedom, becoming a grandfather, splitting from his wife, moving to Devon and starting a new relationship After his conviction, it was revealed that Quinn previously committed an indecent assault when he was just 12 years old. Four years later, when he was 16, Quinn was convicted of two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old girl. Then at the age of 19 he was convicted of arson after setting fire to a wheelie bin outside the home of an ex-girlfriend while her two children were inside, receiving a two-year sentence. His other convictions from the 1990s include causing actual bodily harm, burglary and trespassing with a loaded air gun. Jurors were not told that the reason Quinn’s DNA came to be sampled in 2012 was as part of a national police operation targeting convicted sex offenders. A series of blunders meant it was not matched to samples taken from the rape victim for another decade. And while Mr Malkinson, now 60, endured a nightmarish incarceration, Quinn became a grandfather, split from his wife, moved to Devon and started a new relationship. An independent judge-led inquiry will now examine why it has taken so long to unmask the real attacker. Detectives now suspect Quinn - a 'very dangerous man' who was ‘probably hanging around waiting to see a lone female’ - may be responsible for other unsolved sex offences that took place during his years living in Salford. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. 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