\n<\/p>\n
Andrew Malkinson says he says he knows “at least half a dozen people” currently in prison who he believes could be exonerated if their cases were reviewed. <\/p>\n
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Malkinson – who served 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit – described the failures in the process for reviewing potential miscarriages of justice as a “human rights atrocity”. <\/p>\n
His comments come following the publication of an independent review that found he was completely failed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) – a key agency reviewing his case.<\/p>\n
The review’s lead, Chris Henley KC, has called for a “trawl” of similar cases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He told Radio 4’s Today programme that it would be “far too complacent” to say that what had happened to Mr Malkinson was an “outlying aberration”. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere must be other cases where there are fresh opportunities for retesting DNA samples and that should be undertaken as a matter of urgency,” Mr Henley said. <\/p>\n
The damning report into how Mr Malkinson’s case was handled, which was published on Thursday, concluded he could have been freed five years after receiving a life sentence for a 2003 rape.<\/p>\n
It revealed the CCRC’s investigators and leaders failed to follow up evidence of innocence right up to 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely shocking what Chris Henley has uncovered,” Mr Malkinson said on Friday.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s vast incompetence at the very least\u2026.and I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like at worst”, he told Today. <\/p>\n
“It seems they [the CCRC] devote all their time and resources to finding \u2018clever me\u2019 arguments about why they shouldn\u2019t refer, rather than looking at the police files and really investigating.”<\/p>\n