Image source, Getty Images

The handling of the case that saw Malkinson wrongly jailed is being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

Five former officers from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and one currently serving with the force are under investigation, the IOPC said in April.

Malkinson was wrongly picked out at as the attacker in an identity parade and jailed in 2004. When the victim gave evidence against Malkinson in 2003 she had doubts she had picked out the right man, but police dismissed this as "just trial nerves".

A DNA sample from a vest top, only recovered and identified in 2007, was analysed and ruled out Malkinson. Earlier this year, jurors at Manchester Crown Court heard that this development "ought to have set alarm bells ringing".

Ass Ch Con of GMP Steph Parker said mistakes had been made on the case, with some of the exhibits disposed of and "we know that there were queries around the identification procedure".

"But we really need to understand how those errors occurred, and why those errors occurred, and only at that point would we be able to understand whether there is blame for the police, for anybody else," she said.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme last month, Andrew Malkinson said it was a "great relief" to hear Paul Quinn had been convicted - "the right person, finally".

He describes Quinn as a "vile man" who has caused "untold suffering" both to the victim and to him.

The "best thing" was being exonerated in 2023 but Quinn's conviction in April 2026 "draws a line under it", Malkinson says, making his exoneration "more secure" and getting "the actual perpetrator behind bars".

Asked about flaws in the police investigation, Malkinson says it was "quite wrong" of police to dismiss the victim's doubts about misidentifying the perpetrator as "just trial nerves".

It is "absolutely important" to go through the relevant processes with the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) and a wider judge-led inquiry, he says, adding that it remains unclear how he was misidentified in the first place.

Asked about life now, Malkinson says it is "much better than it was", but adds: "I struggle, I’m struggling with a lot of mental health issues. Anger as well."

Image source, GMP

It was advances in DNA testing that enabled police to identify Paul Quinn as the offender.

In the 2003 rape, saliva was left on the victim's tank top - a sample of which was recovered and identified in 2007 which ruled out Malkinson.

Quinn had provided the police with a DNA sample in 2012, as police collected samples from known sex offenders.

In 2022 a billion-to-one match of his DNA profile was made.

In August of that year news broke that police had matched the vest top DNA sample to another man.

During the trial, the court heard this development had a "profound" effect on Quinn's internet usage.

He told jurors it was a "complete coincidence" he had begun scouring the news for information on the Malkinson case and repeatedly searched Google, asking: "How long is DNA kept in database", and, "Why do I keep sweating all the time…"

He also searched up "wrongful convictions" in the UK.

Image source, PA Media

Paul Quinn was convicted in April by a jury at Manchester Crown Court.

In the wake of the ruling, Malkinson, who was released from prison in 2020, said he was "content that the right result has finally been achieved for the victim, myself and the public".

"But the truth is that if the police had acted as they should have done, Paul Quinn could have been caught a long time ago," he said.

"Instead, they wanted a quick conviction and I was a handy patsy forced to spend over 17 years in prison for his horrific crime."

A key question for Andrew Malkinson has been how he ever got confused with Paul Quinn in the first place.

Malkinson was wrongly picked out as the attacker in an identity parade following the attack on 19 July 2003.

It has since emerged that the victim had doubts she had picked out the right man, but police dismissed this as "just trial nerves".

Malkinson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme in May that the pair "don't look anything alike".

"When I saw his picture, I thought how the hell did I get mistaken for him? I mean, he's got a huge jaw I noticed, and quite cold eyes."

James Burley, from legal charity Appeal, has called for juries to be given "strengthened warning about the pitfalls of eyewitness identification evidence".

Image source, Greater Manchester Police

Claire Ellison
Reporting from Manchester Crown Court

The judge has listened to verbal submissions from the prosecution and Quinn’s defence. He also has the written arguments that both sides emailed earlier.

About 10 minutes ago he told the court he would rise. He will return to sentence the defendant at 14:00.

Paul Quinn stood as the judge stood up and was led down to the cells with a guard just behind him.

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent, at Manchester Crown Court

Lisa Wilding KC, for Quinn, accepts he is going to get a “very substantial” sentence.

She says it is difficult to assess harm 23 years on from the offences and the court needs to take into account the man he is today, not the man he was at the time.

The judge indicates that the defence barrister is going to have to work "quite hard" on that line of mitigation. This is judicial signalling that he is not persuaded by the simple argument that there is no evidence that Quinn has not offended in the same way since.

The court has received a pre-sentence report on Quinn - a formal assessment of the risks he poses - and the indication we’re getting in this hearing is that the expert who wrote the report has ongoing concerns about the risks Quinn poses.

Mr Justice Bright says that one of the things that concerns him is that some offenders who commit "random acts of violence are capable of doing that at any stage of their life".

Claire Ellison
Reporting from Manchester Crown Court

Warning: This post contains distressing details.

We're still hearing submissions in court and comments from the judge. While we wait for more details, let's go for a moment to the victim's testimony at Quinn's trial.

The woman who was attacked by Quinn had been walking home in the early hours of a summer morning after a row with her boyfriend.

It was quite a long walk, lasting several miles, and part of it was picked up by CCTV cameras.

It was when she approached a wooded area that she heard a voice and rustling which frightened her. It was a man, who said: "Come into the bushes, I’ve got a gun pointing at your head."

She sent a text message to her boyfriend, who was asleep, and told the man she would call the police. She picked up her pace and carried on walking towards home.

In her testimony, she said:

"I looked over my shoulder. I saw a male, he was wearing a white collared shirt that was fully unbuttoned at the front and flapping open... he was walking on the same side of the road as me and in my direction. Each time I looked over my shoulder he seemed to be closer.

"I was very frightened by this time… As I approached the motorway bridge...I heard five or six running steps and then felt an almighty force behind me like a push, but with the man attached to me. I remember sliding down a grass embankment…"

The victim said she "thought ... the man was trying to kill me".

She told him: "Please don't I’ve got two babies don't hurt me," but said "that comment seemed to annoy him even more".

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent, at Manchester Crown Court

The judge says that the strangulation had left the victim in a deep state of unconsciousness.

"She was unconscious for half an hour, so unconscious that those things that happened must have caused her extreme pain, but it failed to rouse her."

Mr Justice Bright says that it was a “minor miracle” she had not died.

This matters to the judge - because he is underlining that she was left vulnerable.

In other words, he is not regarding the strangulation as an add-on offence, but an appalling crime in its own terms that needs to be recognised in the sentencing.

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent, at Manchester Crown Court

Mr Justice Bright says that the woman suffered an abduction "of a particular kind", but notes that nobody can be sure based on the evidence how long Quinn followed her for before he dragged her down a bank by a motorway.

The defence submissions, which we have not heard in open court, are that Quinn’s level of personal culpability is lower than the highest level.

This means that they are arguing he is not the type of offender who has taken the greatest number of steps to plan their crime (an example would be a rapist who has researched and planned their attack for weeks).

This is a really technical part of the sentencing exercise in which the judge has to work out where exactly Quinn should be placed on the scale of harm caused.

If however the judge opts for a life sentence, it all becomes rather moot. And it’s worth noting at this point that Andrew Malkinson was given a life sentence in 2004 for this crime.

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent, at Manchester Crown Court

Warning: This post contains distressing details.

John Price KC, the prosecutor, is laying out to the court where Quinn sits on the scale of similar offenders.

He says the culpability - meaning the personal blame that Quinn bears - is at "the highest end of the scale".

In summary, he is arguing that the crime is aggravated by the fact that he did not just sexually attack the victim, but strangled her unconscious and inflicted grievous bodily harm on her face - and had first stalked her through the town of Little Hulton. She had known a man was closing in.

"It is the case that the evidence would support the conclusion that the intention to do what was done was formed a while earlier in her journey," says the prosecutor.

"This is a lady who was swept from a public place ... to a place where she was at his mercy and beyond help."

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent, at Manchester Crown Court

Barrister Abigail Husbands reads the impact statement from the victim - this is a formal reminder to the court of how she has been affected.

"After 20 years, I now have justice but that does not change the fact that 2 lives have been impacted in such a way," she says.

"I am aware that 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 that day has stayed with me and will remain with me for life.

"Every day I look at my face and see the disfigurement, the scarring. It is a permanent reminder of that night and what I experienced. I have to live with that."

The victim's statement adds: "I live in constant fear that someone is behind me, even in places that others wouldn’t consider a risk, like the supermarket."

For Quinn, "it was one night of his life. For me it was one night that changed my life," she says.

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent, at Manchester Crown Court

We’re now in court for the start of the sentencing of Paul Quinn for the 2003 strangulation, grievous bodily harm (GBH) and rape of a woman in Salford - a crime that he kept secret for two decades while the wrong man was in jail.

Quinn is in the dock, wearing a black jumper and staring straight ahead - as he often did during his trial. In the court room is the victim with her family.

She has a legal right to lifelong anonymity, but chose not to be behind screens during the case - meaning Quinn could see her as she gave her evidence.

Seven of the jurors who convicted Quinn have returned to court to see him sentenced.

The public gallery is full - there are reporters, police officers and others to witness this important moment of justice.

Mr Justice Bright will hear first from the prosecution about what the crime amounts to.

We've just had word that the judge is in the courtroom and Paul Quinn is in the dock.

That means the hearing has now begun at Manchester Crown Court ahead of Quinn's sentencing, which is expected later this afternoon.

We'll hear submissions from the prosecution and defence first, before we hear Mr Justice Bright's decision on Quinn's sentence.

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent, at Manchester Crown Court

A sentencing of any offender is a very formal and structured court hearing.

Judges follow both the laws agreed by MPs in Parliament on the sentences for particular crimes - and then the detailed guidelines developed down the decades about how best to apply those in specific circumstances.

Mr Justice Bright presided over the case and therefore knows all of the evidence. He saw the victim of the attack give her account in person and saw for himself how Quinn denied that he could be the attacker.

The prosecution team will tell the judge what category of offending the crime falls into - and the defence barristers will speak on Quinn’s behalf about factors in his favour. The one thing he will not get is a discount on the sentence which is always given to offenders who admit their crimes early, so as to spare everyone the pain of a trial.

The judge will have to decide how much harm Quinn caused and how personally responsible, or “culpable” he was. Those findings then lead him to what’s called a “starting point” for years in prison.

The judge will then take into account other aggravating and mitigating factors. All of this will lead the judge to his final decision - the sentence.

Image source, PA Media

Andrew Malkinson spent 17 years in prison after he was wrongly convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004 for the rape. His conviction was only overturned in 2023 in light of compelling DNA evidence identifying Quinn as the true attacker.

At the time of the attack, Malkinson had been living temporarily in the area of the attack in Salford because of a short-term job. Police saw him as a prime suspect because he had been stopped by two officers some time earlier.

He was wrongly picked out at as the attacker in an identity parade, and in 2004, a jury convicted Malkinson solely on the basis of eyewitness accounts.

From the day of his arrest, he protested his innocence. From around 2007, England's criminal justice agencies should have started to realise he was telling the truth - read why here.

New evidence revealed that when the victim first saw Malkinson in court, after he had been charged, she had doubts she had picked out the right man. A police officer dismissed this as "just trial nerves". It's not clear who this officer was - she cannot remember.

Malkinson told the BBC's Shadow World: Stolen Years podcast last month that he had been "very badly cheated" and that he was thankful police had "finally got the real perpetrator".

Image source, Greater Manchester Police

The 52-year-old formerly lived in Little Hulton, Salford, where he committed the crime. He is a divorced father of six, who left the city in 2016 following a drugs dispute.

He then moved to Exeter, Devon, where he worked as a delivery driver before his arrest in December 2022.

When questioned by police, he said that, for about 16 years from the age of 18, he had a party lifestyle and would take ecstasy pills and other drugs and sleep with two or three women each weekend.

At his trial, the court heard that Quinn was a convicted sex offender at the time of the attack. He was cautioned in 1986 for two counts of indecent assault against a female, when he was 12 years old.

In November 1992, he was convicted of two counts of underage sex, an offence which today would be classified as rape. He was aged 16 and the girl was 12 at the time of the offences.

In April of this year, Quinn was also found guilty of strangulation and grievous bodily harm.

Paul Quinn will be sentenced today for a violent rape he committed in 2003, more than two decades after an innocent man was wrongly jailed for 17 years for the crime.

Andrew Malkinson was wrongly convicted after being misidentified in an identity parade, leading to what has been characterised as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.

Advances in DNA testing ultimately helped identify Quinn as the real perpetrator. Malkinson was released in 2020 and finally exonerated in 2023.

We'll bring you updates here from Manchester Crown Court throughout the sentencing.