Overview
- Paul Quinn, 51, took the stand Thursday at Manchester Crown Court and accepted his DNA was on the victim’s vest but said he did not know how it got there.
- Prosecutors pointed to account activity that accessed a 2019 article about Andrew Malkinson and to 2022 searches on how long police keep DNA, which Quinn said were coincidence and curiosity.
- Forensic testing first found a male profile on the vest in 2007, and police matched it to Quinn in 2022 with a probability of error described in court as one in a billion.
- The jury heard that Andrew Malkinson was wrongly identified in 2004 and served 17 years before his conviction was quashed, and that a scene video and witness testimony closed the prosecution case earlier this week.
- The case, before Mr Justice Robert Bright, highlights the risks of eyewitness identification in older prosecutions and how preserved DNA and digital traces can redirect long-running investigations.