Cold case review after rapist gets justice at last

A spokesman for Essex Police said detectives would not disclose which cases were being reinvestigated in order to protect their inquiry, but said they would include “a number of unsolved sex cases in west Essex”.

It comes after airport worker Jon Molt, 34, was found guilty of raping the 15-year-old girl as she walked home from a Christmas concert at her school in Harlow in 1997.

He wore a stocking over his head and violently wrestled the girl to the ground before raping her.

Despite a major investigation, a Crimewatch broadcast and voluntary DNA screening of 100 men, he was not caught until officers took DNA from his father in an unrelated matter and matched it to samples from the time.

Speaking after the verdict, Molt’s victim, who is married and lives in the London area, called for wider DNA sampling. “In this country, rape is under-reported and the chances of a successful prosecution are low; let’s not make it more difficult for the police by denying them a technique that can make a huge difference.”

Molt, from Harlow, had denied rape but was found guilty after a three day trial. He was jailed for eight and a half years and placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.