The Wrong Man: 17 Years Behind Bars review

This mind-boggling documentary about a man who was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit will prompt rage, tears – and a sense of wild injustice

Right from the start, the events that led to Andrew Malkinson’s imprisonment for rape were absurd. It was summer 2003 when police pulled over the motorbike on which the then-37-year-old was riding pillion – the exchange, according to local reporter Neal Keeling, was “quite amicable”. Weeks later, those same officers receive a description of an attacker from a woman who has been raped. For some strange reason, they recall their brief encounter with Malkinson and decide he fits the bill. Malkinson is put into a police lineup, then a courtroom, then prison – for 17 years. Truly, though, he was transported into what he calls a “parallel nightmare world”, where he remained until last year, when his conviction was finally overturned.

In The Wrong Man: 17 Years Behind Bars, Malkinson eloquently guides us through his descent into this bizarre hellscape. He willingly attends the police lineup he believes will clear his name, only to be positively identified by the victim. Oddly, two members of the public also claim to have seen Malkinson near the scene of the crime, which took place on a motorway embankment in Salford in the early hours. He is found guilty by a jury, and given a life sentence. He spends his jail time “hypervigilant” against violent attacks – yet he is always hopeful that something will come to light that proves his innocence.