'Her attempt to portray herself as the victim is shameless. I know what it's like to be a scapegoat'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Andrew Malkinson has called the former head of the miscarriage of justice watchdog 'shameless' after she resigned from the job saying she had been a 'scapegoat' for his case.

Mr Malkinson, who spent 17 years behind bars for a rape in Salford he did not commit, said Criminal Cases Review Commission chairwoman Helen Pitcher was attempting to 'portray herself as the victim', adding that he knows what it 'truly is like' to be a scapegoat.

He called for a complete overhaul of the CCRC, claiming the body 'obstructed my fight for justice', and repeated demands for Ms Pitcher to be fired and stripped of her OBE after a review was published last July.

It found that wrongly jailed Mr Malkinson was failed by the CCRC and could have been exonerated nearly a decade earlier, prompting Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood to say Ms Pitcher was 'unfit to fulfil her duties' and to seek her removal from the post.