I was detained for 17 years for a crime that I did not commit

In 2004, Andrew Malkinson was wrongly condemned by a brutal stranger rape. He was relieved two decades after his arrest after spending 17.5 years in prison. In July 2023, the Court of Appeal raised its conviction both on the basis of new DNA evidence and because the police had not handed over important evidence at its negotiation that could have led to his acquittal. Andrew was represented by the charity of the legal organization, which continues to support him.

When I heard the news that Peter Sullivan had been clarified after more than 38 illegal prison sentence for a murder he had not committed, I felt great sadness and then anger – but no surprise. I know first -hand how easy it is for the police to bring an innocent person to prison. And I also know hard that the appeal system accepts that cruel injustice has taken place.

Unfortunately, Peter and I are not alone. When I spoke to the media outside of the royal dishes after my own relief in July 2023, I wore a T-shirt that was decorated with the words “innocent and not the only one”. Like me, Peter Sullivan is an innocent person whose life has been destroyed by our judicial system, and there will be others in British prisons.

The details of Peter Sullivan's case are terrible. The police secured his conviction by referring to fake science in the form of Bitemarkische and based on clearly unreliable “confession evidence” of a vulnerable man. In my case, the police kept my defense decisive evidence and used false statements from an dishonest heroin user and his girlfriend to condemn me.

Our law enforcement measures were almost two decades away, but in both cases the police ran out for weak evidence to lock the wrong man away and create the wrong impression that the crimes had been solved. The police not only tore apart Peter Sullivan, me and our families – they also failed the victims of these terrible crimes and their relatives.

But are officers made to face a real accountability for their actions? Until they are, we will continue to see further false convictions, other ruined lives and other dangerous perpetrators, which are noticeable.

The media demonized Peter Sullivan as the “animal of Birkenhead”, although he was actually an innocent, vulnerable man. Reading brought the way the press brought me a “monster” when I was put down for a life for a crime that I had not committed. Regardless of what is now being printed through our relief, including these parts such as this, our psychchen will never heal from such public excorcations.

After relieving Peter Sullivan, nobody should have doubts that our current appeal procedure is criminal. Between us, Victor Nealon (relieved in 2013), Peter Sullivan and I was used for over 72 years behind bars because the so -called safety networks of our judicial system about our innocence were rejected. After years of fighting, the DNA finally solved all of us – but before that, both the Court of Appeal and the review Commission for Criminal failure (CCRC) rejected our cases.

In the cases of mine and in Victor Nealon, the CCRC refused to commission DNA tests, and so it was left to our legal teams to fight the tests. This was not an easy task in a system in which the police responsible for their illegal conviction controls access to the evidence that could prove their innocence. In Peter Sullivan's case, the CCRC 2021 finally seems to have initiated DNA tests.

However, I was horrified that the test technology to achieve the DNA breakthrough seems to be available in 2012. I just don't understand why scientific progress is not used proactively and quickly in order to exterminate the bodies commissioned with this job into incorrect convictions to mention the police. At my great personal costs, I know how every day of false detention is a nightmare that slowly destroys your life and health. Nevertheless, the system does not seem to worry about it.

The former chairman of the CCRC, Helen Pitcher, has resigned in shame about the abuse of my case through the body, but the long -time managing director Karen Kneller remains unexplained. It should be exposed to the responsibility for the errors of the CCRC.

And what about the judges who previously found that our illegal convictions are “safe”? I was sick that the appellate court only gave Mr. Sullivan's conviction in a judgment for two pages longer than a clean state of health. It seems that many people who rise in the ranks to become a senior appeal are able to recognize injustice when staring at the face.

The Law Commission recently presented some draft proposals for the reform of the complaint system. In my opinion, nothing less than a full overhaul will be good enough. The Court of Appeal and the CCRC have proven to be lazy institutions that have to be broken down from scratch and rebuilt. Both must be held responsible and occupied by people who have the courage to challenge the police and dig deeply for the truth.

When I finally cleared my name in 2023, it was the end of a long struggle for justice. But it was also the beginning of a new struggle to put parts of my broken life together again. This was indescribably difficult – the pain of all of these years of false detention is not magical if they are from prison and have been confirmed. The prison is a depressing, dystopian place to life. When they are released, they enter a completely different world, and somehow they have to realize what the state has added to them while they repeatedly with the effects and memories of life what happened.

At the beginning of this year I finally received an intermediate compensation payment. The profound trauma that I have suffered cannot take away, but it helped me to return some independence. It also enabled me to travel abroad, something that I was passionate about before the state closed me. The flight from the country, which limited me in prison for so many years, helps me to get an insight into true security and freedom, but I learn that the illegible pain caused by my illegal conviction will follow me wherever I go.

My heart and solidarity go to Peter Sullivan, his family and the loved ones from Diane Sindall. When I can imagine that Peter Sullivan from HMP Wakefield – a hellish place where I was also limited – to try to rebuild his life in which he went back to it. It annoys me to know that, as I am forced, he is forced to go through a tangled and privately application process in order to receive compensation from the state that kidnapped him. Under the current system, regardless of the extent of the damage, every amount he receives is shamefully limited to 1 million GBP – an arbitrary number that has not been adapted to inflation since 2008.

How about everything in the world can the government be an adequate amount for someone who has wrongly imprisoned more than half of his life? The cap is an abomination and an insult. It should be scrapped or at least significantly increased. A new system should be introduced that immediately offers all survivors of the illegal conviction of proper financial and psychological support. It is the least that the state owes people like Peter Sullivan, Victor Nealon and me for the atrocities.