Rape victim ‘warned police Andy Malkinson may not be attacker’

She explained to the jury she had raised her concerns with police at court after seeing Malkinson in person.

“I was very naive,” she said. “I listened to what the police said and what they told me to do. And they said it was fine, it was the right man.

“They said it was trial nerves.”

Asked if she could remember specifically who it was who had reassured her, the woman replied it was someone “higher” than a policeman.

She added that when she later revealed her doubts to her husband, he too sought to reassure her.

“Just to be clear,” said Wilding, “Are you saying that you knew you got the wrong identification, but you told the jury it was the right one?”

“No,” the woman replied. “I said I was unsure because I had not seen him with glasses – it threw me a bit in court.”

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 strangulation.

The trial continues.