Do we need a nationwide DNA database for crime?

When a man has spent 17 years in prison for a crime that he didn’t commit, there are many urgent questions about policing and the criminal justice system which need answering. 

Andrew Malkinson, who will never get back those years after being wrongfully convicted of raping a woman in a violent attack in 2003, certainly deserves the answers.

Why did officers from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) single him out as a suspect? Why was strong evidence that pointed away from him, such as the absence of scratch marks caused by the victim, seemingly overlooked? Why did police fail to disclose to Malkinson’s lawyers vital documents showing the long criminal records of two prosecution witnesses? And why did the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, take so long to obtain the documents and order fresh scientific tests on samples from the crime scene? The CCRC refused to refer the case to the Court of Appeal in 2012 and 2020 and did so in 2023 only after the charity law practice, Appeal, had done the digging themselves on the 57-year-old’s behalf.