Paul Quinn, a 51-year-old man from the Salford area, was found guilty at Manchester Crown Court of committing a horrific sexual assault in July 2003 that led to one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in British history.
The attack occurred in the early hours of 19 July 2003 in Little Hulton, Salford, when Quinn, then aged 29, dragged a woman in her 30s from the street beside a motorway embankment as she walked home. The victim, a mother-of-two, was brutally beaten, suffering severe injuries including a fractured cheekbone and a nipple almost severed from a bite. She was strangled unconscious and raped twice. Quinn was convicted on two counts of rape, attempting to choke, suffocate, or strangle the woman to render her unconscious to enable the rape, and grievous bodily harm.
At the time of the offence, Quinn was already a convicted sex offender. Court records revealed that he had begun sexually assaulting women at the age of 12, when he was convicted of indecent assault on a female. By the age of 16, he had been convicted of two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse related to assaults in 1990 and 1991. His DNA was on file due to Operation Cube, a police initiative in the 1990s to collect samples from individuals convicted of sexual offences.
The case gained notoriety because Andrew Malkinson, now 60, was wrongly convicted of the rape in 2004 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of seven years. Malkinson served 17 years before his conviction was quashed by the Supreme Court in 2023, following fresh DNA analysis that linked Quinn to the crime. The DNA match was first identified in 2007 but not fully pursued until 2022, when it was matched to Quinn's sample on the victim's top. No forensic evidence had ever linked Malkinson to the scene; he was identified solely through a flawed police identity parade and his proximity to the crime location.
During the six-week trial, Quinn denied responsibility, claiming he had no idea how his DNA ended up on the victim's clothing. In earlier police interviews, he attributed it to his 'highly promiscuous lifestyle', alleging he had slept with hundreds or thousands of local women. However, jurors heard evidence of Quinn's 'profound' interest in the case, including 89 Google searches for news articles in September 2022, 69 in October, and 49 in November. In August 2022, he searched for 'how long is DNA kept in database' and 'can you refuse to give a DNA sample to the police UK'.
Following the guilty verdicts delivered by the jury foreman, Quinn, wearing a white T-shirt, leaned forward in the dock while his relatives in the public gallery reacted with shock. Andrew Malkinson expressed relief outside court, stating: 'I am 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. Instead, they wanted a quick conviction and I was a handy patsy forced to spend over 17 years in prison for his horrific crime.'
Detective Chief Superintendent Rebecca McKendrick, who led the investigation for Greater Manchester Police, indicated concerns that Quinn may have committed additional sexual offences before or after 2003, describing it as a 'distinct possibility' and an active line of enquiry. Separately, the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating Greater Manchester Police's handling of the original case, with five former officers facing gross misconduct probes and one serving officer under investigation for misconduct. One former officer is also subject to criminal investigation for potential misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice.
Quinn was remanded in custody and scheduled to be sentenced on 5 June 2026.