Hommam Al Nassim 
After 17 years behind bars, British Andrew Malkinson was declared innocent of a rape charge he did not commit, in a case described as “ridiculous from the beginning.”
The Guardian reported that the events that led to Malkinson’s imprisonment were full of contradictions and wrong decisions.
The events of the incident date back to the summer of 2003, when police officers stopped Malkinson, who was 37 years old at the time, while riding his motorcycle.
Weeks after that friendly encounter, the same officers received a description of a man who had unjustifiably sexually assaulted a woman. They recalled their brief encounter with Malkinson and decided he was the suspect.
Malkinson was arrested and placed in the police station, then in court, and finally in prison, where he spent 17 years. Malkinson described this period as a “parallel nightmare world.”
During the trial, the victim positively identified him, and two other people claimed to have seen him near the scene of the crime, which took place on the motorway bridge in Salford in the early hours of the morning. The jury found him guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Malkinson said in press statements that he lived his imprisonment in a state of hypervigilance against violent attacks, hoping that evidence would emerge to prove his innocence.
Malkinson continued: “I spent 17 years, 4 months and 16 days in prison, and all that time the real perpetrator of the crime, the real dangerous person, was free, and now I am out of this court without apology, without explanation, unemployed, homeless.”
After his innocence was confirmed, he moved to Spain, where he lived in a tent, and currently lives in a small apartment in southern England, trying to overcome the effects of the nightmares and panic attacks that he suffers from due to the long period of imprisonment.
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