Keir Starmer to testify in Andrew Malkinson investigation

Sir Keir Starmer was head of the Crown Prosecution Service from 2008 to 2013. Photo: Labor Party

Sir Keir Starmer is due to testify to no independent inquiry into wrongful conviction of Andrew Malkinson, former Cabinet Minister says.

Sir Robert Buckland, former Attorney General, said the Labor leader had » perfectly legitimate» questions he could answer about the scandal when he headed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) from 2008 to 2013, even if it was to show that he had no direct involvement.

The Labor Party stated that the case never came to Sir Keir's desk when he was Director of Public Prosecution and that he did not take any personal part in it.

However, the role CPS, as well as the Police and Criminal Review Commission (CCRC) employees are expected to come under scrutiny in an independent investigation expected to be announced in a few days by Attorney General Alex Chalk.

< p>Malkinson, 57, spent 17 years in prison for raping a stranger in Greater Manchester in 2003, which he did not commit. An appeals court acquitted him last month of spending years trying to convince authorities of his innocence after new DNA testing linked another person to the crime in 2007.

Questions about his role are mounting more. CPS and its apparent failure to raise earlier concerns about the validity of the sentence.

In 2009, the CPS Head of Comprehensive Cases acknowledged that the new evidence was «surprising», but further stated that there was no need to do any further work on the case unless the case was taken to an appellate instance where its focus would be on “supporting the case against Mr. Malkinson.

Andrew Malkinson served 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit . Photo: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire

The CPS is required, under its own direction, to write to the CCRC «at the earliest opportunity about any case in which there is doubt about the safety of the verdict.» However, there is no information about the transfer of new evidence to the CCRC. Instead, they appear to have only communicated this to Mr Malkinson's then legal team.

Sir Robert said: “I'm sure [Sir Keir] will cooperate. He will inevitably be asked, even if the question never hit his desk and he knew nothing about it. This must be clearly stated if we are to understand who knew what and when. This is a perfectly legitimate question.»

Sir Keir said in April that he took «full responsibility for every decision of the CPS when I was director of the prosecutor's office.»

CPS it was notified of the new DNA evidence on February 29, 2008. It wrote to Mr. Malkinson informing him of the new information on March 11.

They claim to have fulfilled their legal obligations according to the lawyer. general advice on informing Mr Malkinson's lawyers of the new evidence, but they did not answer The Telegraph's questions about whether she also told the CCRC.