The government’s most senior law officer has been asked to review the “unduly lenient” prison sentence handed to a rapist who evaded police for nearly two decades in one of Britain’s biggest miscarriages of justice.
Paul Quinn was jailed last week for a minimum of 14 years, meaning he could spend less time in prison than Andrew Malkinson, who was wrongly convicted of his crime.
Malkinson, 60, spent 17 years behind bars before his conviction was quashed in 2023. He said he was “insulted and appalled” that Quinn had “got off so lightly”.
Yasmin Qureshi, a Labour MP, said on Monday she had written to the attorney general, Richard Hermer, to request the sentence be reviewed. The attorney general has the power to refer a case to a court of appeal if they think the sentence is too lenient.
Qureshi said: “This conviction was meant to close the door on one of the gravest miscarriages of justice this country has ever seen. An innocent man spent 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
“A woman who was raped and subjected to appalling violence has had to relive that trauma in court, more than 20 years on, to ensure that the man who attacked her was finally held to account.”
She added: “It cannot be right that the actual perpetrator of these crimes may serve less time in prison than the innocent man who was wrongly convicted for them. That is especially troubling given that Quinn knew of Andrew Malkinson’s wrongful imprisonment and said nothing.”
Sentencing Quinn at Manchester crown court on Friday, Judge Bright said it was a “minor miracle” the woman had survived the act of “direct physical evil” as she walked home in Salford in the early hours of 19 July 2003.
He said Quinn would serve a maximum of 21 years in prison but would be eligible for parole after 14, three years short of the term served by Malkinson.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose a life sentence but he declined, saying he was satisfied that Quinn had changed his lifestyle since 2017, when he left Salford after a drugs dispute, although he still presented “a significant risk of serious harm – not indefinitely, but for a period of some years”.
The woman, who had been walking home from her boyfriend’s house in the early hours of the morning, was strangled until she passed out before being raped and punched with such force that her cheekbone was fractured. Her nipple was partly severed from a bite.
Bright said Quinn had abducted the woman from a safe place and “savagely” attacked her in “the most grave” way.
Qureshi said: “As a barrister and a former prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, I know that sentencing guidelines exist to guide courts, not to cap them.
“In cases of exceptional gravity, judges have the power to go further. I trust that if this is referred to the court of appeal, the crown will seek a sentence that truly reflects the seriousness of what was done.”
A spokesperson for attorney general’s office said: “We have received a request for Paul Quinn’s sentence to be considered under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
“The law officers have 28 days from sentencing to carefully consider the case and make a decision.”
