The criminal past of the philandering fencer who partied while the wrong man rotted in prison
There was no reaction from Paul Quinn when police finally came knocking at his door. It was a day he had been awaiting for nearly 20 years.He had thought about what he would tell the police and how he would paint a false picture to try and avoid being locked up.The now 52-year-old, then aged 29 when he brutally raped and attacked a woman on an embankment near a motorway in Salford in 2003, watched on for those two decades as an innocent man served 17 years in jail, for a crime which Quinn had committed.Click here to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily NewsletterIt later became clear Quinn, a father-of-six who lived in a terraced house in Little Hulton, had been monitoring the case for years before he was eventually caught by DNA evidence.And it was his disturbing past as a convicted sex offender, even before he raped a complete stranger, that did for him in the end.In 2004, Andrew Malkinson received a life sentence with a minimum term of seven years for the crime. He eventually served 17 years after refusing to admit to something he had not done.How one of the UK's worst miscarriages of justice played out at Manchester Crown Court - and ended with an innocent man serving 17 years in jailOn Friday (April 17), Quinn, of Whipton Barton Road, Exeter, was found guilty of two counts of rape and well as inflicting GBH and a charge of attempting to choke, suffocate or strangle with intent. He will be sentenced onBorn in Salford and raised from the age of three in Little Hulton, Quinn knew the town like the back of his hand. He lived just over a mile from where the woman was stalked and attacked."It was a together community," Quinn said in court. "People knew everybody. You could stop and talk to people on the street."Quinn, a keen football fan and supporter of Manchester United, left school at 15 without any qualifications. He went into the workplace, later finding a career in fencing.Interview clips played to the court during the Paul Quinn trial Even before he met his future wife Catherine in 1992, Quinn had built up a disturbing list of convictions which painted a troubling picture of what he was capable of.In November 1986, Quinn, who was then just 12, received a caution for indecently assaulting a female. Two years later, aged 14, he was dealt with at the juvenile court for burgling a house in Eccles.Most notably, Quinn, then 16, was convicted of two counts of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13. His victim was 12, in a crime which would be classified as rape under modern law.This would be the offence which would trigger a police request for Quinn's DNA in 2012, and would eventually implicate him in the 2003 stranger rape. Quinn was still committing crimes around the time he met Catherine, in 1992.He was dealt at Eccles Magistrates' Court in October 1992 for two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.The following year, in March 1993, the 18-year-old was detained for two years in a young offender institute for arson with intent after starting a fire at the home of an ex-partner, where her two children were living. Thankfully no one was hurt.Even as a teenager, Quinn was showing he was capable of committing extreme acts, with a tendency for sexual violence.In 1996 Quinn married Catherine, and the pair began a family. They went on to have five children together and Quinn raised a child of his wife's from a previous relationship as his own.In about 2000 they moved into a house on Carrfield Avenue in Little Hulton, just over a mile from the scene of the crime in 2003. Quinn worked as a fencer for Fare Fence Ltd, a company which installed fencing at domestic and commercial premises. Catherine stayed at home to look after the children and run the house.While she brought up the children and attended to domestic matters, Quinn thought only of himself. Years later, he would claim to have been 'disgusted' at his behaviour as he recalled being unfaithful to his wife.Quinn seemingly used every opportunity he could, even while at work, to cheat on Catherine. He would chat up women on the job, and use his favourite nightclub in Farnworth, Chuffers, as a staging ground for sex.Quinn, who said he'd be out every other week, told how he and his drinking buddies would go on a pub crawl through the town, often drinking two or three pints in each pub, before landing in Chuffers for the end of the night.He would also dabble in cannabis, speed and ecstacy on occasion, he said. "We would be very drunk," Quinn would recall. "We'd be taking drugs. We'd be on speed."Es, smoking cannabis, drinking alcohol. It was like a party weekend. We used to take pills and a few Es when we went out."But the ultimate aim was to, as Quinn put it, 'cop off' with a woman. He described 'copping off' as being anything from kissing or touching to sex.Quinn claimed he 'never' used a condom during his exploits. He only stopped this party lifestyle in 2010 when he started paying a mortgage and could no longer afford it.While police believe Quinn did cheat on his wife, they believe it was a carefully crafted and exaggerated story to try and explain away his involvement in a notorious crime which haunted Salford for more than 20 years.A 33-year-old mother-of-two had fallen out with her boyfriend on the night of July 18. In the early hours, she stormed out of the house, and vowed that she'd walk home. She did, and, nearing the end of her journey, she faced every woman's worst nightmare.As she walked down the street, the woman heard a male voice coming from a wooded area."I think you should come into the bushes," the male told her. "I have a gun pointed at your head."She later recalled: "The voice sounded very close and with a local accent. I could not see anyone. At first I didn't realise someone was talking to me, because I was in a daydream. I said something rude to the man, I cannot remember what. I told him I would ring the police. I heard rustling in the undergrowth."She carried on, and texted her partner to tell him what had just happened. "I said at the end of the message 'I was scared'," the woman said.But she could still sense that she was being followed. At one point she looked over her shoulder and saw a male with a white shirt that was 'fully unbuttoned'.She said: "He was some distance behind me. Each time I looked over my shoulder he seemed to be closer. I was very frightened by this time."Shortly after, she heard 'five or six running steps' before feeling an 'almighty force behind me, like a push but with the man attached to me'."I remember sliding down the grass embankment. As we slipped further down the embankment on my hands and knees, trying to get back up, the man was holding onto my left arm."He temporarily let go and I tried to crawl away. I tried to dial 999. Sometime between me struggling to get up and him trying to strangle me, I said to him 'you're hurting me'."The man said 'you better give me the mobile'. I think the man could see the light on my mobile which appeared to make him more angry."The man said 'get rid of it' or 'give me the mobile'. By this time I was on my belly. I tried to get up twice. I put the mobile phone under my belly and managed to throw the phone a very short distance."She said the man 'pulled me back'. "By this time I was lying on my back with my head facing up the embankment towards the road."He was kneeling over me. He said something to me but I cannot remember what he said. The man placed his right hand up my skirt and grabbed hold of my knickers. He began to try to rip the knickers off me."I was in such shock, I said to him 'what are you doing?'. My mind went blank. I didn't know what to say to him. Everything was happening too fast. I was struggling and wriggling."Detectives fear 'disturbing' rapist Paul Quinn may have committed more crimes as he avoided justice for decadesThe woman tried to push the man away, which she said 'appeared to have annoyed him'. She said he 'leaned over' her and 'placed both of his thumbs' on her windpipe."He didn't fumble and was very precise in what he was doing," she said. "I saw the man had removed his shirt and was bare chested. I began to push his chest to get him off me. I tried to fight him."His thumbs were still in my throat. The man released his grip but again came down on my neck with both of his thumbs in a precise manner, this time more forcefully."I started to panic. I could not breathe. I was flailing my arms about, panicking. I thought by this time that the man was trying to kill me. The man leaned further back, I said to him 'I know who you are, I've seen your face'."She described how she scratched the right side of his face in a 'downwards motion'. The woman said that she 'pleaded' with him and said 'please don't'."That comment seemed to annoy him even more," she continued. "He appeared to gain extra strength as he came back down on my windpipe with his thumbs."I was convinced he was going to kill me, and I was so frightened. I felt that he wanted to stop me breathing. I then became unconscious. I don't know how long I was unconscious. I woke up and it was daylight."She was eventually able to drag herself up from the embankment and onto the road, where she tried to flag down cars. Initially unsuccessful, she found Philip Councill, a dog walker and told him that she'd been raped.At around 5.30am on July 19, 2003, the police were alerted. She was taken to hospital and was found to have suffered severe swelling to her face and was unable to open her left eye. She had suffered a fractured cheekbone, and bruising to the neck.Her nipple had bitten and was partially lacerated. Expert witnesses said there was evidence of strangulation, and that there was evidence her vagina and anus had been penetrated.No evidence of ejaculation was recovered. The victim gave a description of her attacker, and an E-fit was produced.She described her attacker as: "Male, white, olive skinned and tanned, 5' 8" at most (2" taller than me), muscular build, medium, pro "pecs", stomach, shiny hairless chest, dark verging onto black, thick hair a wave to it – not curly over the ears or side (thinks)."Defined facial features – high cheek bones. Clean shaven early to mid 30s. Accent local to Bolton, but detected something else in his accent. Dark trousers. White shirt with collar.Andrew Malkinson issues statement after Paul Quinn convicted of rape he wrongly served 17 years for"Open down front of chest. Fine stripes horizontal on shirt – (colour u/k). Fully unbuttoned."The following year, based on identification evidence alone, Andrew Malkinson was found guilty of raping and attacking the woman. He would serve 17 years in prison for a crime he had not committed.All the while, Paul Quinn continued to live his life. He worked, partied, and helped bring up his kids - while an innocent man rotted in jail, desperately trying to prove his innocence.In the meantime, advancements in DNA evidence and other developments in the field meant Quinn wouldn’t live out the rest of his days as a free man.DNA testing had been carried out in 2003 after the attack. Forensic scientists found no evidence of semen, but did discover a trace of silicone oil used in condoms present in the victim's knickers.Saliva had been found on the victim's vest top, in an area which aligned with the painful injury to her nipple. The results proved inconclusive in 2003, but further testing in 2007, promoted by national concerns over the efficacy of testing in previous cases, found a DNA profile belonging to another male, who was not Malkinson or the victim's partner.The identity of 'unknown male one', as the profile was named by scientists, remained a mystery for a further 15 years. In 2012, the first step was taken on the path to the secret being revealed.Operation Nutmeg was a national initiative to take the DNA of offenders convicted of serious offences, who had previously not been registered on the DNA database. GMP acted on this and an officer attended Quinn's home, where a mouth swab was taken from him.Even after Quinn's DNA was taken, Andrew Malkinson remained in prison for another eight years after that 2012 visit.The forthcoming Malkinson public enquiry is expected to investigate why it took so long for Quinn's DNA to be matched.It was only in 2022 that Quinn's DNA profile was loaded onto the national database and matched with 'unknown male one'.Scientists said it was 'at least one billion times more likely' that Quinn was a contributor to the DNA sample alongside the alleged victim, rather than the DNA being from the alleged victim and two other unknown people, or it being from the alleged victim, her partner and one other unknown person.But years before then - and even before Andrew Malkinson's case gained traction in the media from 2020 onwards - Quinn had been monitoring developments, wondering when his day would come.On September 12, 2019, Quinn looked up an old article from the Manchester Evening News website reporting on the Malkinson case in 2004.'Rapist facing life in prison', the headline reported. Minutes later, Quinn Googled 'wrongly convicted cases uk'.Shortly after, he accessed an article about Victor Nealon, a postman who served 17 years in prison for an attempted rape before being cleared using DNA evidence, an eerily similar case to Andrew Malkinson's.The Malkinson scandal was not in the news until late 2020. Only Quinn and Malkinson knew there had been a wrongful conviction.The following year after his DNA had been taken in 2012, Quinn was cautioned for producing a controlled drug, cannabis. Police believe drugs was the reason he decided to leave his native Salford.In 2016, Quinn and his wife separated, for reasons understood to be unconnected with the 2003 attack. The following year, he left Little Hulton for Exeter, where a friend of his lived.In Devon he met a new partner, and began living with her and her two children in the south west.Detective Chief Superintendent Rebecca McKendrick, who led the investigation which began after Quinn was identified as a suspect, said that he had become 'fearful' as a result of 'some kind of drugs dispute'.He was said to be living a quiet, settled life in his new surroundings, but all the while monitoring the internet for any developments in the case. When news broke in July 2022 about there being a new suspect in the 2003 rape case identified through DNA evidence, Quinn was clearly rattled.Between August and December 2022, he scoured the homepage of the Manchester Evening News website 249 times, searching for any updates."How long is DNA kept in database," he asked Google in August 2022. 'Why do I keep sweating all the time' and 'why am I sweating so much all of a sudden', he searched a week later.The following day he searched for 'how long is your dna kept on the database' and 'can you refuse to give a DNA sample to the police UK'.His new partner had no idea Quinn's days in Exeter were numbered.It was about 3.30pm on December 13, 2022, when Quinn had the knock on the door that he had waited nearly 20 years for.Police from Greater Manchester made the 250 mile journey to his home to inform Quinn that he was under arrest on suspicion of rape.He offered no reply. In an interview with police, officers claimed he had made out 'as if you've slept with the majority of Manchester over a sixteen-year period' to 'explain away' how his DNA found on the woman could have been innocently got there.At trial, Quinn was forced to accept the DNA on the woman's vest was his.He had no sensible explanation as to how it got there. But police were not satisfied with just the DNA evidence to prove Quinn's guilt.They approached his family, friends, former colleagues - anyone who could help build up a picture of his life. His ex-wife gave evidence to the jury. In striking testimony, she recalled that her husband had been out on the night of the attack in 2003."I remember the night that it happened was the night Paul had gone out," Mrs Quinn said. "He came home with no shirt on."Mrs Quinn said that she told her ex: "I hope they don't find it anywhere near there [the scene of the alleged rape].""It was a kind of joke," she added. "I assumed he had left it in the club." She also said that Quinn would 'wet shave' his chest, in line with the victim's description of her assailant.A former best friend of Quinn who grew up with him, Clifford Minor, told how Quinn would sometimes leave on his own after nights out in Farnworth and walk home. Another witness who saw the attacker described him as looking 'off his head'.While working, Quinn said he would often take his top off, explaining the victim's 'tanned' comment. His manual labour work also fit in with her description of a 'muscular build'.Beverely Craig and Michael Seward, a couple who had been out in the early hours and saw the attacker, were again used as witnesses. The defence in the Malkinson case did not know that the pair had multiple criminal convictions for offences of dishonesty, according to the Henley report, a report by Chris Henley KC commissioned by the Criminal Cases Review Commission into the organisation's handling of Andrew Malkinson's case.Quinn's legal team were aware, but jurors were not told of this. Seward has since died, but Craig gave evidence maintaining she believed she had seen Andrew Malkinson in the early hours that morning.While there was no direct evidence against Quinn, the circumstantial clues pointing to his guilt were mounting. Following a trial which began on April 4, Quinn, who had been remanded in custody throughout the trial and for a period while he awaited the case, was convicted of all counts.It finally brings a conclusion to a shocking saga which brings shame on the criminal justice system. It will hopefully give the victim of an appalling crime closure, and the victim of an appalling miscarriage of justice, the satisfaction that the right man has finally been brought to justice.Now, the focus will turn to examine exactly how such a travesty of justice was allowed to happen.
