Andrew Malkinson says he's living on benefits and has been forced to use foodbank as he awaits wrongful conviction payout
11.05.2024 - 14:01
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A man who spent 17 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit says he is living on benefits and has been forced to use his local foodbank as he awaits compensation for his wrongful conviction.
Andrew Malkinson, now 57, was 37 when he was found guilty - on February 10, 2004 - by a 10-2 majority of carrying out a violent sex attack on a woman by the M61 motorway in Little Hulton, Salford.
In July last year, the Court of Appeal overturned his conviction after forensic testing linked another man to the crime. Mr Malkinson says he is 'in urgent need of mental health support from clinicians who would at last recognise what [he has] been through in the past 20 years'.
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He says that despite people saying he would be owed millions in compensation, he is living in poverty.
In an opinion piece for The Guardian, he said: "In the days after my exoneration, news stories were followed by comments from the public suggesting that I must be due a major payout from the state. Millions, they reckoned.
"Enough to make sure I could own a home, make up for lost time and secure the support I needed for my mental health. This week I found myself in line at the local food bank. I am so grateful to the people who so generously stocked my kitchen for the week, but given what the state owes me I should not be in this position."
Mr Malkinson said he has now been given a council flat in the south, where he lives with his lawyer's dog, a cocker spaniel called Basil.
He says there is a statutory scheme to compensate victims of miscarriages of justice but that nine months after being cleared, he is still living on £363.74 a month in Universal Credit.
He claims he has