In January 2024, news broke that the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) was warned in 2013 that it could have missed crucial DNA evidence in a number of historic rape cases. This warning comes in light of an ongoing appeal from Andy Malkinson, who was wrongfully imprisoned in 2004 for a rape he did not commit.
Mark Newby, our HCA and Head of Litigation, discussed these issues with Nick Robinson on the Today programme on the 24th January 2024.
Mark cited the lessons that should have been learnt from Victor Nealon’s case, a previous case which led to wrongful imprisonment for rape in 1997. The Commission had missed opportunities in 2002 to investigate DNA evidence which led in 2013 to the quashing of Victor Nealon’s conviction. He, like Andy Malkinson, served 17 years for a crime he did not commit, where another person was found to have left DNA evidence on the victims’ clothing.
In 2014, the then Chair of the CCRC Richard Foster apologised to Victor Nealon and promised that the Commission would learn lessons from what went wrong in his case and that the CCRC were doing everything they could to prevent anything similar from happening in the future.
However considering these latest revelations about the commission’s handling of Andy Malkinson’s case, Mark stated that it is up to us to judge whether lessons were really learned from these historic failings or why the current Chair of the CCRC Helen Pitcher has not yet apologised for these high-profile miscarriages of justice.
As for Victor Nealon, he and Sam Hallam (who was wrongly imprisoned for murder in 2004) have been fighting the government for compensation for more than a decade. This culminated in a hearing before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights on 5th July 2023 for which judgment is currently awaited at the time of writing.
Commenting on the ongoing situation, Mark stated: “If the UK government is truly committed to victims of miscarriages of justice it can immediately change the law and retrospectively compensate Victor Nealon, and Sam Hallam while making sure Andy Malkinson and others in the future are also properly compensated.”
