Sir Keir Starmer says questions about his CPS role during Andrew Malkinson case should be ‘directed elsewhere’
Sir Keir Starmer has said questions about his role as the director of public prosecutions (DPP) during the wrongful conviction of Andrew Malkinson should be “directed elsewhere”.
The Labour leader said Mr Malkinson – who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit before having his conviction overturned – had been through a “real ordeal” and that there should be an inquiry to “get to the bottom of that”.
There have been questions regarding Sir Keir’s role as DPP and head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after it emerged that DNA evidence which exonerated Mr Malkinson came to light in 2007 and was known to all the key agencies, including the CPS, in 2009.
Sir Keir was DPP from 2008 to 2013.
While Labour has said the case never crossed his desk and that Sir Keir had no personal involvement in it, his role as the head of the CPS has come under scrutiny in light of previous statements he has made.
The Labour leader told Sky News in April that he took “full responsibility for every decision of the Crown Prosecution Service when I was director of public prosecutions”.
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Asked whether that meant he accepted a role “in the miscarriage of justice” regarding Mr Malkinson, Sir Keir replied: “I’ve seen the statement the Crown Prosecution Service have put out, and so far as I can see, they discharged their obligations by making sure the material in question was given to Mr Malkinson’s lawyers.
“That’s what they should have done. That’s what I understand they did – so I think the questions in this case are actually directed elsewhere.”
Mr Malkinson, 57, was found guilty of raping a woman in Greater Manchester in 2003 and the next year was jailed for life with a minimum term of seven years.
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Innocent man locked away for 17 years
He remained in jail for another decade because he maintained his innocence.
Last month he had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal after DNA evidence that linked another man to the crime was produced by his defence team.
Case files obtained by Mr Malkinson as he battled to be freed – and seen by Sky News – show officers and prosecutors knew forensic testing in 2007 had identified a searchable male DNA profile on the rape victim’s clothing that did not match his.
Notes of a meeting between the Forensic Science Service, the CPS and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in December 2009 – a year into Sir Keir’s tenure – suggest the CPS understood the possible importance of the 2007 DNA find.
CPS guidance states it must write to the body responsible for investigating possible miscarriages of justice, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), “at the earliest opportunity about any case in which there is doubt about the safety of the conviction”.
But the case files show both the police and the CPS chose to take no further action and there is no record the CPS directly informed the CCRC.
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The CPS claims Mr Malkinson’s lawyers were informed directly of the new DNA evidence.
The CCRC refused to order further forensic testing or refer the case for appeal in 2012, with the case files citing fears about costs.
Mr Malkinson’s case was described as “astonishing” by former solicitor general Lord Edward Garnier KC, who said there should be an inquiry into the “total public mess” that has unfolded following his exoneration.
Former justice secretary Robert Buckland also told Sky News that “some comment from Sir Keir would be welcome”.
“I would have thought it would be good for Sir Keir as a former senior lawyer to say something about it and to say he will co-operate with any public inquiry,” he said.
A CPS spokesperson said: “It is clear Mr Malkinson was wrongly convicted of this crime and we share the deep regret that this happened.
“Evidence of a new DNA profile found on the victim’s clothing in 2007 was not ignored. It was disclosed to the defence team representing Mr Malkinson for their consideration.
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Police and CPS ‘knew another man’s DNA was on woman’s clothes
“In addition, searches of the DNA databases were conducted to identify any other possible suspects. At that time there were no matches and therefore no further investigation could be carried out.”
In light of the revelations, the CCRC has said it will review Mr Malkinson’s case.
A spokesman said the commission would be as “open as we can be within our statutory constraints” about “lessons to be learned”.
“We recognise that Mr Malkinson has had a very long journey to clear his name and it is plainly wrong that he spent 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
“We have already been in touch with Greater Manchester Police and with the Crown Prosecution Service to offer our assistance in any of their inquiries.”
The attorney general and the Home Office both declined to comment.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren warned that if President Donald Trump eventually moves to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, it could undermine investor confidence in the integrity of US capital markets and trigger a financial crash.
During an appearance on CNBC, the Massachusetts Senator said the President does not have the legal authority to remove Powell from his position. Moreover, removing Powell would weaken the financial infrastructure of the US, Warren added:
“If Chairman Powell can be fired by the President of the United States, it will crash the markets. The infrastructure that keeps this stock market strong and, therefore, a big part of our economy strong, and a big part of the world economy strong, is the idea that the big pieces move independently of politics.”
“If interest rates in the United States are subject to a president who just wants to wave his magic wand, this doesn’t distinguish us from any other two-bit dictatorship,” Warren continued.
President Trump has repeatedly called for Powell’s termination, citing the chairman’s hesitancy to lower interest rates. Lower interest rates are usually considered a positive catalyst for risk-on asset prices, including cryptocurrencies, and could reverse the market downturn brought on by the trade war and current macroeconomic pressures.
Related: Fed’s Powell reasserts support for stablecoin legislation
Trump’s feud with the Federal Reserve chairman
Trump criticized Powell for not cutting interest rates and called for his termination again in an April 17 Truth Social post, which inflamed speculation that he would follow through on threats and find a way to remove the chairman.
Senator Rick Scott echoed Trump’s calls to remove Powell. “It’s time to clean house of everyone working at the Federal Reserve who isn’t on board with helping the American people and fighting for their best interests,” Scott wrote in an opinion piece published on Fox News.
The Trump administration has repeatedly stated that lowering interest rates is a top priority. Market analyst and investor Anthony Pompliano recently speculated that Trump deliberately crashed financial markets to force lower interest rates.
At the time, Pompliano cited a reduction in the yield of the 10-year US Treasury Bond to just 4%. The 10-year bond yield has climbed back up to 4.3% since then.
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Crypto investor sentiment took another significant hit this week after Mantra’s OM token collapsed by over 90% within hours on Sunday, April 13, triggering knee-jerk comparisons to previous black swan events such as the Terra-Luna collapse.
Elsewhere, Coinbase’s report for institutional investors added to concerns by highlighting that cryptocurrencies may be in a bear market until a recovery occurs in the third quarter of 2025.
Mantra OM token crash exposes “critical” liquidity issues in crypto
Mantra’s recent token collapse highlights an issue within the crypto industry of fluctuating weekend liquidity levels creating additional downside volatility, which may have exacerbated the token’s crash.
The Mantra (OM) token’s price collapsed by over 90% on Sunday, April 13, from roughly $6.30 to below $0.50, triggering market manipulation allegations among disillusioned investors, Cointelegraph reported.
While blockchain analysts are still piecing together the reasons behind the OM collapse, the event highlights some crucial issues for the crypto industry, according to Gracy Chen, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitget.
“The OM token crash exposed several critical issues that we are seeing not just in OM, but also as an industry,” Chen said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction daily X show, adding:
“When it’s a token that’s too concentrated, the wealth concentration and the very opaque governance, together with sudden exchange inflows and outflows, […] combined with the forced liquidation during very low liquidity hours in our industry, created the big drop off.”
Crypto in a bear market, rebound likely in Q3 — Coinbase
A monthly market review by publicly traded US-based crypto exchange Coinbase shows that while the crypto market has contracted, it appears to be gearing up for a better quarter.
According to Coinbase’s April 15 monthly outlook for institutional investors, the altcoin market cap shrank by 41% from its December 2024 highs of $1.6 trillion to $950 billion by mid-April. BTC Tools data shows that this metric touched a low of $906.9 billion on April 9 and stood at $976.9 billion at the time of writing.
Venture capital funding to crypto projects has reportedly decreased by 50%–60% from 2021–22. In the report, Coinbase’s global head of research, David Duong, highlighted that a new crypto winter may be upon us.
“Several converging signals may be pointing to the start of a new ‘crypto winter’ as some extreme negative sentiment has set in due to the onset of global tariffs and the potential for further escalations,” he said.
Manta founder details attempted Zoom hack by Lazarus that used very real “legit faces”
Manta Network co-founder Kenny Li said he was targeted by a sophisticated phishing attack on Zoom that used live recordings of familiar people in an attempt to lure him to download malware.
The meeting seemed real with the impersonated person’s camera on, but the lack of sound and a suspicious prompt to download a script raised red flags, Li said in an April 17 X post.
“I could see their legit faces. Everything looked very real. But I couldn’t hear them. It said my Zoom needs an update. But it asked me to download a script file. I immediately left.”
Li then asked the impersonator to verify themselves over a Telegram call, however, they didn’t comply and proceeded to erase all messages and block him soon after.
Li said the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group was behind the attack.
The Manta Network co-founder managed to screenshot his conversation with the attacker before the messages were deleted, during which Li initially suggested moving the call over to Google Meet.
Speaking with Cointelegraph, Li said he believed the live shots used in the video call were taken from past recordings of real team members.
“It didn’t seem AI-generated. The quality looked like what a typical webcam quality looks like.”
AI tokens, memecoins dominate crypto narratives in Q1 2025: CoinGecko
The cryptocurrency market is still recycling old narratives, with few new trends yet to emerge and replace the leading themes in the first quarter of 2025.
Artificial intelligence tokens and memecoins were the dominant crypto narratives in the first quarter of 2025, accounting for 62.8% of investor interest, according to a quarterly research report by CoinGecko. AI tokens captured 35.7% of global investor interest, overtaking the 27.1% share of memecoins, which remained in second place.
Out of the top 20 crypto narratives of the quarter, six were memecoin categories while five were AI-related.
“Seems like we have yet to see another new narrative emerge and we are still following past quarters’ trends,” said Bobby Ong, the co-founder and chief operating officer of CoinGecko, in an April 17 X post. “I guess we are all tired from the same old trends repeating themselves.”
Crypto lending down 43% from 2021 highs, DeFi borrowing surges 959%
The crypto lending market’s size remains significantly down from its $64 billion high, but decentralized finance (DeFi) borrowing has made a more than 900% recovery from bear market lows.
Crypto lending enables borrowers to use their crypto holdings as collateral to obtain crypto or fiat loans, while lenders can use their holdings to generate interest.
The crypto lending market was down over 43%, from its all-time high of $64.4 billion in 2021 to $36.5 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, according to a Galaxy Digital research report published on April 14.
“The decline can be attributed to the decimation of lenders on the supply side and funds, individuals, and corporate entities on the demand side,” according to Zack Pokorny, research associate at Galaxy Digital.
The decline in the crypto lending market started in 2022 when centralized finance (CeFi) lenders Genesis, Celsius Network, BlockFi and Voyager filed for bankruptcy within two years as crypto valuations fell.
Their collective downfall led to an estimated 78% collapse in the size of the lending market, with CeFi lending losing 82% of its open borrows, according to the report.
DeFi market overview
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.
Decentralized exchange (DEX) Raydium’s (RAY) token rose over 26% as the week’s biggest gainer, followed by the AB blockchain (AB) utility token, up over 19% on the weekly chart.
Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.
Tokenized stocks are on track to exceed $1 trillion in market capitalization in the coming years as adoption accelerates, two industry executives said at the TokenizeThis conference in New York.
The total addressable market for tokenized stocks — a type of tokenized real-world asset (RWA) — is difficult to project but is “definitely a bigger trillion-dollar market,” Arnab Naskar, STOKR’s CEO, said during an April 16 panel at the event.
In 2025, demand for the instruments has “exploded” from institutions ranging from Web3 wallets to neobanks to traditional financial services firms, according to Anna Wroblewska, Dinari’s Chief Business Officer.
“We’ve had an enormous influx of demand from a much broader scope of potential partners than you might even imagine […] it’s actually been really interesting,” Wroblewska said.
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Small but growing market share
As of April 18, tokenized stocks comprise around $350 million in cumulative market capitalization, according to data from RWA.xyz.
This represents only a sliver of the total RWA market, which is worth upward of $18 billion, the data shows.
But this could change as tokenized stocks capture a growing share of the US equities market, Wroblewska said. The US stock market has an aggregate value of more than $50 trillion, according to Siblis Research.
There is a “huge appetite for US public equities… even individual investors globally want exposure to US capital markets. Tokenization makes it fast and cheap,” Wroblewska said.
She added that tokenized US Treasury Bills are already in high demand for similar reasons. They currently comprise nearly $6 billion in total market cap, RWA.xyz data shows.
Meanwhile, Coinbase is considering making tokenized shares of its stock available on Base, its Ethereum layer-2 network.
Collectively, tokenized RWAs represent a $30 trillion market opportunity globally, Colin Butler, Movement Labs’ global head of institutional capital, told Cointelegraph in an August interview.
“Tokenization will become a mirror of the market. If the user experience is better, faster, and cheaper, people will default to tokenized assets,” Wroblewska said.
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