Finance adviser jailed 25 years after brutal rape of widow, 69

A FINANCIAL adviser has been jailed for raping an elderly widow in her home more than 25 years ago – but his victim did not live long enough to see him brought to justice.

Kevin Moloney was 19 when he attacked 69-year-old Beatrice De Kanter at her semi-detached home in Cottingham, near Hull, on December 7, 1985.

Thinking he had escaped justice he continued living in the area, got married and had two children, while his victim lived with her trauma and died in 2001 knowing her attacker was still at large.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Moloney was finally trapped as part of a cold case review by police, and a DNA sample taken when he was arrested for growing cannabis in 2009 was matched with evidence from the attack.

Moloney, now a divorced 44-year-old of Elloughton Road, Brough, East Yorkshire, claimed he had shared a drink with the reclusive widow before they had consensual sex on her couch.

But the original investigating officer, retired Det Supt Barry Lilley, had kept copies of photographs of the scene, and these showed piles of newspapers and rubbish on the couch that proved Moloney was lying.

He had raped her in the hallway after breaking in through the back door of her home in Thwaite Street in the early hours.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Faced with this evidence – it was initially thought the photographs had been destroyed – Moloney admitted rape and was jailed for four years at Hull Crown Court yesterday.

Mrs De Kanter, who lived alone, was described as “unkempt” and the court heard she lived in squalid conditions, with newspapers piled high in the rooms and hallways, and refused to let her family visit.

Following the hearing, the head of the Humberside Police’s Major Incident Team, Det Supt Dena Fleming, called the rape “horrific”, and said: “This incident was a premeditated attack by the offender who had approached the victim, a widow of 11 years, on two previous occasions prior to the rape.

“The fact the incident happened in her home makes it all the more upsetting as this is one place she would have expected to have been safe.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Sadly the victim died nine years ago and will unfortunately never know that the person responsible for attacking her has been arrested and sentenced 19 years after her death.

“That is a tragedy but her family will hopefully take some comfort from the fact that justice has finally been done. My sympathy and that of my team goes out to them.”

She added: “In crimes such as this one the offender normally goes on to have a life, in Moloney’s case he got married and had two children. The victim however has to live with what has happened, trying to rebuild some form of existence often by blanking out what happened.

“Moloney carried on living in the area feeling he had escaped justice, however, his DNA was taken following an arrest for cultivation of cannabis. Prior to that offence his role in this horrific offence was not known.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The case review was carried out as part of Operation Fox, which re-investigates unsolved serious sex crimes and was launched by Mrs Fleming in 2009.

The team has secured seven convictions since then and Det Supt Fleming said it was hoped more would follow. She said: “The fact that these offences are historical does not mean they are any less serious, or that the offender is any less violent.”