.png)
4 hours ago
1
Andrew Malkinson is to be given a payout by the Ministry of Justice, more than a year and a half after the court of appeal declared his innocence.
Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape in Greater Manchester that he did not commit, was cleared in July 2023. Since then he has been struggling on benefits.
This week he will receive a “significant”, six-figure sum as an interim payment – and has already begun planning a trip to Australia to see his half-sisters for the first time since 1990.
Malkinson, 59, said he was relieved not to have to worry about money after feeling he had been left “to rot” on universal credit for 19 months. “It’s been a mighty struggle, because I could hardly pay for my rent and food … So I’m very pleased now that I’m financially independent and I’ve got the freedom I craved whilst in prison.”
The final amount Malkinson will receive is still being decided by the independent assessor of miscarriage of justice compensation, the retired judge Sir Robin Spencer. But the substantial payment in the meantime is enough for him to travel in the way he dreamed of when he was incarcerated.
Malkinson was a keen backpacker before his freedom was abruptly taken away when he was 37. As he approaches his 60th birthday, he can finally rediscover his passion. “Now I’m able to escape the UK soon enough, and get some respite from what I consider to be a hard place to live.”
As well as hoping to make it to Australia, Spain and Portugal this year, Malkinson has more modest plans for his windfall. He wants to buy some “small stargazing binoculars” to look at the night sky in the southern hemisphere and “a nice speaker” for his car so he can hear his favourite reggae music without the bass sounding tinny.
He also hopes to buy a small flat in the UK but is conscious that he will need to make the money last.
It is likely that his considerable time spent in prison will put him in line for the maximum amount of compensation. But legislation introduced by Labour in 2008 capped the scheme at £1m, something he believes is in urgent need of an update.
In his case, even this maximum would translate to just £50,000 for every year he spent wrongly being treated by the state as a convicted sex offender. Malkinson said the scheme “needs undoing and putting back on the road to justice”.
Toby Wilton at Hickman and Rose, the legal firm representing Malkinson in his civil claim, said the interim payment was “long-awaited good news in this case”, but that it was “not right that this statutory compensation scheme can only pay out a maximum of £1m to victims of serious miscarriages of justice”.
Wilton added: “This £1m cap on compensation (which even includes all the costs of claiming compensation) was set nearly 20 years ago, in 2008. £1m then would be worth around £2m today. The arbitrary and unfair compensation cap should, at the very least, increase with inflation in just the same way that other compensation in the English legal system, and that – say – MPs’ salaries increase over time.”
Despite multiple applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission to investigate his case, it was a team at the charity and law practice Appeal who uncovered the evidence that resulted in his case being re-examined. An independent review found missed opportunities by the CCRC meant he could have been exonerated almost a decade earlier.
Following revelations in the Guardian about the CCRC’s spending on expensive French business courses for its chief executive and allegations about its “absent” leadership, Malkinson said the stays in “Fontainebleau and all those fancy la-di-da trips” made him think “they seem to have a problem with priorities”.
after newsletter promotion
He said: “[The money for] these expensive little jollies away could have been spent investigating cases instead of doing paper exercises.”
Malkinson has already successfully changed the law on compensation so that prison lodging costs are no longer deducted from any payout and the money does not affect legal aid for any civil claim against public bodies such as the police. Now he wants to see further improvements.
As well as lifting the £1m cap, he wants more people whose convictions are overturned to receive money. More than 93% of applicants to the scheme are denied compensation, according to evidence in a test case in the European court of human rights last year.
Miscarriage of justice victims have to prove innocence “beyond reasonable doubt”. Malkinson said: “I can barely express how dreadful that is, to put an innocent citizen in prison for years on end, have it overturned and then say: ‘Well, we’re not going to compensate you.’ It’s horrific. What is that victim supposed to do with his life or her life?”
He added: “It should be automatic … the government owes the victim.”
The Ministry of Justice has been contacted for comment.
