Rapist identified through DNA from 
scratches is jailed for seven years

Peter Kovacs, 24, lured his victim down an overgrown ginnel in the Lower Grattan Road area of Bradford last November and raped her after saying he wasn’t going to pay for sex.

It emerged yesterday that he had been given a community order for indecent exposure and voyeurism in October 2011.

Bradford Crown Court heard the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was punched in the face by glove-wearing Kovacs, but as she fought back she scratched him across the face and called the emergency services using a mobile phone hidden in her bra.

Kovacs, a Slovakian, of Kensington Street, Bradford, realised that she had made the call and fled after kicking her.

Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, said nail scrapings from the victim led to Kovacs’s DNA being identified, but the process took a few days and he was not arrested until after he had robbed a second prostitute the next night.

The court heard that Kovacs again took his victim down the same alleyway, but she tried to leave after he refused to pay in advance.

Mr Sharp said Kovacs snatched her handbag and after a struggle managed to escape having stolen some cash and a lighter.

Kovacs, who came to this country in 2010, was arrested two days after the robbery and was noted to have scratches to his face. He
was also in possession of the
lighter.

In December he pleaded guilty to charges of rape and robbery.

Judge David Hatton QC jailed Kovacs for four years and four months for the rape offence with an additional three years in custody for the robbery offence. He also extended Kovacs’s licence period following his release by an extra three years and ordered him to register as a sex offender with the police.

After the hearing Det Chief Insp Scott Wood said: “These were premeditated attacks upon two vulnerable victims, the effects of which have had a profound impact. The sentence imposed by the courts today should serve as a powerful deterrent to those thinking of embarking upon such criminality.”