Rapist jailed at last over attack 30 years ago

Christopher Sykes was 17 when he attacked a 16-year-old girl on waste ground close to his home in the Canklow area of Rotherham.

The rape, which took place at 10.30pm on October 19, 1981, remained unsolved and Sykes avoided prosecution until the case was reopened last year.

He was finally snared when DNA samples taken at the time of the attack were compared with samples taken in relation to a later crime.

When arrested last year Sykes denied the charge, and Sheffield Crown Court heard he suggested his victim had agreed to have sex with him. But the day before he was due to stand trial last July, the 46-year-old changed his plea to guilty.

Sarah Wright, prosecuting, told the court the girl had been forced to live with the effects of the horrifying rape for the past three decades.

She said that at the time of the attack, the police had treated the victim extremely poorly, giving her the impression she "was not believed".

Miss Wright said the force had since apologised for the way she was dealt with which she had said had made her "feel dirty and like she wanted to die".

The court was told the attack took place as the teenager was walking home to the Brinsworth area after a night out with her then boyfriend and some friends.

Miss Wright said: "As she reached the end of Canklow Road, she became aware of a man walking towards her. As he passed, he stopped and then started to follow.

"She was grabbed from behind around her chest area and he dragged her to an overgrown grassed area at the side of the road. She put up a fight. She screamed and pleaded with the defendant to stop. But he took no heed."

The court heard that after the rape, Sykes warned the girl not to tell police and because of his threats she deliberately did not look at him before he left.

She then flagged down a car for help. Two men in the car took her home to her father who told police she arrived "distraught and dishevelled".

Miss Wright read a statement from the victim thanking South Yorkshire Police's cold case team who made the DNA discovery.

"It's just so fantastic that they have kept this evidence and they have looked at it," she said. "To me it is like a dream come true.

"I feel there's a guardian angel out there looking after me because everything I have been through all these years, the way he made me feel and the way he made my family feel about me, it's like justice has been done."

The court heard that after the 1981 attack, Sykes had attacked two more women, one in nearby Rawmarsh in February 1987 and again in Rotherham that August.

He was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of both attacks.

In mitigation, Dermot Hughes said Sykes had built a new life for himself in Hertfordshire. He had a partner of 12 years and an 11-year-old daughter and had not been in trouble since being released from jail in 1990.

Jailing Sykes for eight and a half years, Judge Simon Lawler said that although decades had passed since the crime there were several "aggravating features", including the later attacks.

He said it was "merciful" that police procedures had changed since the 1980s and added: "One may say these cases are every woman's nightmare, the after effects on this victim were devastating."