‘Frightening’ disorder or a ‘moral panic’? Assessing the threat from the city centre teens
A senior councillor tells us ‘it looks like a bloody triple X horror movie. We don't want to be like some bloody American city’
Good morning — an extraordinary story broke yesterday afternoon when Andrew Malkinson, an innocent man who was jailed for 17 years for an attack in Salford, had his conviction overturned. New evidence has emerged pointing to a different suspect. “Now I have finally been exonerated, I am left outside this court without an apology, without an explanation, jobless, homeless, expected to simply slip back into the world with no acknowledgement of the gaping black hole they opened up in my life,” Malkinson said outside the Court of Appeal. “A black hole that looms so large behind me that I fear it will swallow me up.”
The case is one of the country’s biggest miscarriages of justice in recent memory, and it is an astonishing indictment of Greater Manchester Police, who led the investigation. In a statement, the force said: “We are truly sorry to Mr Malkinson that he is the victim of such a grave miscarriage of justice, in being convicted of a crime he did not commit and serving a 17-year custodial sentence.” More on this story below.
Our main story today is about a week of disturbances in the city centre, something we reported on in our briefing on Monday. But how bad is it? “It is frightening, it looks like a bloody triple X horror movie,” senior Labour councillor Pat Karney told us. “We don't want to be like some bloody American city.” Not everyone agrees with that. One security guard told us that the incident involving a large number of students scrapping with police is something that takes place every year, and local campaigner Dr Morag Rose told us: “We do see repeated moral panics about young people being out of control and they are panics that are not grounded in fact.” What’s really going on in the city centre? Mollie and Jack tried to find out.
As always, today’s fascinating main story is a members-only affair. Non-members will be able to read the mini-briefing but to get the inside track on whether teenagers are turning Piccadilly Gardens into a nightmarish warzone reminiscent of 1970s New York, you will need to join us for the very reasonable outlay of £7 a month. Joining us means you get eight extra editions of our journalism every month, including investigative reporting, cultural coverage and informative data journalism. And your subscription also funds all the journalism which we provide free of charge, which is core to our mission and which we think provides a vital role in the public conversation. So for all those reasons please join up now if you haven’t yet — we’ve added 163 new members so far in July and we want 200, which would be a record! If you haven’t already, jump on board.
Your Mill briefing
Andrew Malkinson, a man who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, has had his conviction dramatically overturned. Malkinson, from Grimsby, was arrested by Greater Manchester Police in 2003 for an assault and attempted murder that took place in Salford, where he had been working as a security guard. He told detectives they had the wrong man but, despite not matching the description of the attacker and no physical evidence linking him to the crime, he was picked out by the victim at an identity parade. “I felt the world... the floor fell from under me. I think I actually wept. I couldn't believe it,” he recalled. The CPS did not contest Malkinson’s appeal after his case was referred to the Court of Appeal earlier this year because fresh evidence implicated a different suspect. In a statement last night, GMP’s assistant chief constable Sarah Jackson said: “We are truly sorry to Mr Malkinson that he is the victim of such a grave miscarriage of justice, in being convicted of a crime he did not commit and serving a 17-year custodial sentence. Whilst we hope this outcome gives him a long overdue sense of justice, we acknowledge that it does not return the years he has lost. I have offered to meet with him to personally deliver this apology.”
What will this mean for GMP? Greater Manchester’s deputy mayor Kate Green, who is in charge of policing, said in a statement that she will be asking the force to review the case: “This is a shocking miscarriage of justice, and I would urge Government – as I will be doing with Greater Manchester Police and local criminal justice partners — to look at this case in close detail to examine what lessons need to be learnt across the criminal justice system to prevent another innocent person having to go through something like this again.” But given the severity of the injustice suffered by Malkinson, the chief constable Stephen Watson will need to explain in much more detail what went wrong. GMP’s apology statement immediately tried to shift the blame away from the force, pointing out that the evidence presented by GMP “was subject to a full criminal trial before a jury, who ultimately reached the final guilty verdict.” Malkinson’s release owes a lot to the campaigning journalism of Emily Dugan, whose reporting on the case for the Sunday Times – and a multi-part podcast — brought it to public attention.
Manchester City Council is on course to install almost 10,000 solar panels on its buildings by the end of this year. It’s a key part of the council’s plans to become carbon neutral by 2038, which also include a 50% reduction in emissions from industrial buildings by 2025. The 2038 target applies to all of Greater Manchester. We looked at how a scrutiny committee was tracking progress towards that target back in March (How seriously is Greater Manchester taking its 2038 climate pledge?)
A £300m expansion of the Etihad Stadium is being put to Manchester City Council’s planning committee today. It would take the stadium’s capacity to over 60,000 people, and features a 400-bed hotel and a public square. Planning officers are set to approve the scheme which the architects, Populous, say will turn the Etihad into a “year-round leisure and entertainment destination”.
And finally: What goes into reporting a story like our two-part profile of nightlife kingpin Sacha Lord? Jack, who wrote the pieces, discusses that with our editor Joshi on our podcast this week. It’s an insightful look at our process, including the challenge of speaking to off-the-record sources, checking out untrue rumours and the stresses of editing a long read late on a Friday afternoon. Listen now.
‘Frightening’ disorder or a ‘moral panic’? Assessing the threat from the city centre teens
By Mollie Simpson and Jack Dulhanty
Last Friday, as schools broke up for the summer, a group of teenagers from two local secondary schools descended on Piccadilly Gardens for a scrap. The fight began between kids, but turned into an attack on a common enemy: Greater Manchester Police.
A group of boys headed into Morrisons and bought multiple punnets of eggs, stacking them under their armpits. Mike, a security guard, approached them to ask what was going on.
“Lads, you’re not doing what I think you’re doing,” he said wearily. “You’re not going to be making cakes, are you?”
“Revenge, innit,” one teenager replied.
“Revenge for what?”
“The way they’re treating us,” he said. Another added: “I got arrested for nothing last year.”
Mike noticed how many kids were outside and realised he had no chance of stopping them. “I thought, if we’re going to have trouble, I can’t control all of them,” hes.
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