By Dominic Casciani, @BBCDomC,
Home and Legal Correspondent
The justice secretary is to seek the sacking of the chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) following the publication of a review into the case of Andrew Malkinson.
Shabana Mahmood said Helen Pitcher – who heads up the body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice – was “unable to fulfil her duties”.
An independent review published on Thursday found Mr Malkinson, who waited 20 years to be exonerated of rape, was completely failed by the key agency reviewing his case.
The damning report concludes he could have been freed five years after receiving a life sentence for a 2003 rape.
Mr Malkinson welcomed the news, saying Ms Pitcher had “proved herself utterly unfit to lead the CCRC”.
The report revealed the body’s investigators and leaders failed to follow up evidence of innocence right up to 2022.
The justice secretary said the findings were “sobering”.
“It is my firm view that Helen Pitcher is unfit to fulfil her duties as chair of the CCRC. I have therefore begun the process to seek her removal from that position,” Ms Mahmood said.
“My thoughts are with both Andrew Malkinson and the victim of this horrific crime.”
In response Mr Malkinson, who spent 17 years in jail, said he hopes “this will be followed with a complete overhaul” of the CCRC.
“Ms Pitcher’s discredited senior leadership team should also now go, and be replaced with people who are serious about fighting miscarriages of justice,” he said.
She has apologised in a statement. She is unavailable to be interviewed today for personal reasons.
Mr Malkinson was accused in 2003 of raping a woman in Greater Manchester. He was convicted and jailed for life despite no DNA linking him to the crime.
He was convicted on contested eyewitness accounts, even though he did not resemble a description of the suspect or bear a deep facial scratch injury that the victim had inflicted on her attacker.
Three years after he was jailed, forensic scientists, using new DNA techniques, found key evidence from an intimate part of the victim’s clothing that pointed to a different unknown man.
By 2009, Greater Manchester Police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the CCRC all knew of this lead – but the miscarriages agency rejected the first of Mr Malkinson’s three pleas for help.
In his report, Chris Henley KC said this was the first in a series of missed opportunities by the CCRC.
In 2013 the agency failed to review the file again, despite the Court of Appeal exonerating another man of rape in near-identical circumstances.
It then dismissed Mr Malkinson’s further plea for help in 2019 – and considered turning him down a third time in 2022.
The report finds that agency only referred the case back to judges after Appeal, a legal charity acting for Mr Malkinson, won a battle to have new DNA analysis conducted. Mr Henley said he had no confidence the CCRC would have ever done the work itself.
“It had taken 20 years to put this appalling miscarriage of justice right,” said Mr Henley.
“This case demonstrates a deep-seated, system-wide cultural reluctance, which starts right at the top in the Court of Appeal, to acknowledge our criminal justice system will on occasion make mistakes.
“It is not by any standard a success, or a demonstration that things are working properly, that Mr Malkinson had to wait 20 years to be exonerated.”
Mr Henley’s report reveals one CCRC case manager dismissed Mr Malkinson’s arguments without even reading the most important evidence. This mistake of not obtaining the police file was repeated another two times.
If case workers and leaders had done their job properly, he said, the Court of Appeal could have reconsidered Mr Malkinson’s conviction in 2009.
He said that statements by the CCRC’s chair, Helen Pitcher, had not properly reflected the agency’s failings and criticisms of the CCRC’s decision not to apologise immediately to Mr Malkinson after he exonerated in 2023 were “well-founded”.
“There should be a wholehearted apology made by the CCRC to Mr Malkinson,” said Mr Henley.
“The CCRC failed him. It required [miscarriages of justice charity] Appeal to obtain the new DNA evidence that ultimately resulted in the further work that led to the referral by the CCRC. It would not have happened otherwise.”
Today, Andy Malkinson called on Helen Pitcher to resign – or for the government to sack her.
“This report lays bare how the CCRC obstructed my fight for justice and cost me an extra decade wrongly imprisoned,” he said.
“The finding that in 2022 the CCRC was considering rejecting my case for a third time, despite the compelling DNA evidence presented by my legal team, shows that the body is biased through and through.
“It needs to be torn down and completely rebuilt.”
“If Helen Pitcher is truly sorry, she’ll step down. The CCRC’s delay in publishing this report and its decision to conceal the names of the personnel whose actions caused me so much suffering is shameful.”
After Mr Malkinson’s exoneration, BBC News sought an interview with Ms Pitcher but the CCRC said she couldn’t speak publicly until after this report had been published. Today, she is unavailable for interview for personal reasons.
In a statement accompanying the report, Ms Pitcher said: “Mr Henley’s report makes sobering reading, and it is clear from his findings that the Commission failed Mr Malkinson.
“For this, I am deeply sorry and wish to offer my sincere regret and an unreserved apology on behalf of the Commission.
“Mr Henley’s report includes nine recommendations, and the Commission has already begun work to implement them.
“Nobody can begin to imagine the devastating impact that this wrongful conviction has had on Mr Malkinson’s life, and I am deeply sorry for the additional harm caused by our handling of the case.”
