The ex-wife of a man accused of a rape which led to a wrongful conviction of another man has told a court that a shirt belonging to her husband had gone missing on the night of the attack.

Catherine Quinn told Manchester Crown Court that Paul Quinn had gone out dancing wearing a white shirt with mid-blue stripes, but it never went in the wash.

The victim of the 2003 Salford attack had told police the man who assaulted her had been wearing a white shirt with a stripe.

Mrs Quinn said the attack had been in the news at the time and she had joked to Quinn - who denies all the charges - that the shirt had better not be found near the crime scene.

Andrew Malkinson was arrested within weeks of the incident and later convicted, spending 17 years in jail on the basis of mistaken eyewitness evidence.

This new trial alleges that Quinn's DNA evidence links him to the attack.

Earlier in the trial, the jury had heard the victim's description of the attacker, who had snatched her from behind in the street as she was walking home in Little Hulton just before dawn on 19 July.

She was strangled unconscious and has no memory of the rape. She told police that the man had been wearing a white shirt with a collar and it had been completely unbuttoned down the front.

There was a horizontal stripe down the shirt, she said.

During her evidence to Quinn's trial, Mrs Quinn said the incident had been "massive news" at the time because it had occurred less than a mile away from their home.

"I remember the night that it happened was a night that Paul had gone out.

"He came home with no shirt on," she told the jury.

She said the shirt had been short sleeved and white with mid-blue stripes going down and across the fabric.

It had been memorable because he had very few shirts and she did all the laundry, the jury heard.

Mrs Quinn said when her then-husband would go dancing, he had a habit of unbuttoning his shirt or taking it off if he got too hot.

John Price KC, prosecuting, asked: "When you heard about the [attack] did you say anything about the missing shirt?"

Mrs Quinn replied: "I said I hope they don't find it anywhere near there - something like that."

She later explained the comment had been meant as a joke and she had assumed the shirt was in a night club.

In her account to the police, the victim said she had scratched her attacker down his face, breaking a nail as she did so.

She said the assailant had a local accent, with a trace of another, and a shiny hairless chest.

Mrs Quinn told the jury that she did not recall any injury on her ex-husband in 2003.

She said he had a naturally hairy upper body - and in the summer months would shave his chest, using clippers and a wet razor.

Lisa Wilding KC, for Mr Quinn, suggested to the witness that her memory was wrong, and she could not have had the conversation about the missing shirt at the time.

The attack had not been in the news until the day after, Wilding said.

Mrs Quinn said she could not remember the dates but "we definitely talked about it".

Quinn, who has been living in Exeter, pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm and attempting to choke or strangle his victim to render her unconscious while he carried out the attack.

The trial continues.

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