I painted this portrait of Andy Malkinson in autumn 2022, shortly after reading Bill Robertson's description of his case on CCRC Watch. Spending 17 years in prison for something you didn't do, and when the last ten were because you refused to admit guilt, was incredibly moving. While there are thousands of people in UK prisons wrongfully convicted of rape and sexual assault, Malkinson's was further notable for having been handed down in the year of New Labour's 2003 Sexual Offences Act. Many people sent to prison since then are justified in calling themselves political prisoners due to the gradual reversal of the presumption of innocence, and systemic disregard of the 'beyond reasonable doubt' principle.
'Celebrity' cases such as Malkinson's can become somewhat heavily mediated, with similarly taken, deeply earnest photographs that can become over-familiar. This painting was based on one of them, but captured fairly quickly, in the impressionistic style to which I seem to gravitate. It's a personal view of what has become a very public story, and my homage to the gift of stubbornness in the face of judicial politics.
Sean Bw Parker
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