A woman told a court her husband came home with no shirt the night of a horrific rape in Salford for which another man was wrongly jailed.
Catherine Quinn said she told Paul Quinn, now her ex-husband, she hoped the shirt would not be found near the scene of the crime, less than a mile from where they lived in Little Hulton.
Days after the brutal assault, on July 19 2003, police arrested local shopping centre security guard, Andrew Malkinson, who was jailed for 17 years and became “the victim of a most terrible miscarriage of justice” before new DNA evidence linked father-of-five Quinn to the attack, which he denies.
Mr Malkinson, now aged 60, and originally from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, was released from jail in 2020.
Mrs Quinn told a jury at Manchester Crown Court: “I remember a night it happened was a night Paul had gone out.
“He came home with no shirt on. He said he didn’t know where it was.”
John Price KC, prosecuting, asked the witness: “When you heard about the incident, did you say anything to your then husband about his missing shirt?”
She replied: “Just that I hope they don’t find it anywhere near there. Something like that.”
The witness said she noticed the short-sleeved white shirt, with thin blue lines down and across, making a square pattern, was missing when she went to do the washing.
Mrs Quinn, who said it was the only occasion her husband returned home without his shirt, added: “It was massive news at the time.
“Just that a lady had been horribly attacked, raped, beaten and left for dead.”
Mrs Quinn told the jury she later heard on the news that a security guard at a local shopping centre had been arrested over the attack.
The court heard her marriage to Quinn took place in 1996 and they had five children but were separated in October 2016 with their divorce finalised in June 2019 before Quinn moved to Exeter, Devon.
The rape victim, a woman in her 30s, had been dragged from the street beside a motorway embankment, brutally beaten and raped twice.
She told police she had snapped off a fingernail clawing her attacker’s face, believing he would have scratches to his face.
Lisa Wilding KC, defending Quinn, then cross-examined the witness.
She said: “Mrs Quinn, do you remember hearing in the news police were looking for the attacker?
“Police were looking to speak to anyone with a male friend or relative who came home in the early hours of Saturday with scratches or insect bites.
“Police asked you if you saw any injuries and you have told police you did not see any injuries?”
“No,” Mrs Quinn said.
Ms Wilding asked how she could remember the exact shirt from 2003 and was able to describe it in detail, 20 years later, when police spoke to her.
“He didn’t have many shirts,” the witness said.
Ms Quinn accepted that the shirt was short-sleeved, and her ex-husband’s upper arm tattoo of a boxing bulldog would be visible when he was wearing it.
No DNA evidence linked Mr Malkinson to the attack, but he was picked out in error, jurors heard, by the victim and two other witnesses at an ID parade.
He made multiple appeals for authorities to review his case before Mr Malkinson’s final attempt led to his appeal against his conviction being granted by the Court of Appeal.
Quinn, aged 29 at the time of the attack, was only linked to the crime years later, after scientific advances matched his DNA profile from samples left on the victim.
The DNA findings estimate it would be at least one billion times more likely if Quinn was a contributor to the sample found at the crime scene than if he was not.
The defendant has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm and attempting to choke or strangle his victim to render her unconscious while he carried out the attack.
The trial was adjourned until Friday morning.
By Pat Hurst, Press Association
