Mark Wilkinson was jailed for five years

A man has been jailed for the rape of a student in 1995 after a routine DNA swab linked him to the crime six years later.

Mark Wilkinson, 25, was arrested and cautioned for urinating in a South Tyneside street in December 2001.

A DNA sample was taken as a matter of routine and it was later matched against evidence taken from a rape victim.

Wilkinson was caught by detectives working on Operation Phoenix which aims to take a fresh look at unsolved sex crimes from the 1980s and 1990s using modern DNA techniques.

The victim has been distressed for the last seven years and I hope this will give her some sense of finality Detective Inspector John Watts

Wilkinson, of Roker Baths Road, Roker, Sunderland, was jailed for five years on Thursday after a jury found him guilty of raping the 19-year-old student in Sunderland in December 1995.

Judge Esmond Faulks said Wilkinson's behaviour that night was "clearly out of character".

The judge said the jury had seen the victim's evidence via a TV link and that she was "hugely traumatised" by the offence which took place in an alleyway after she had visited a nightclub.

After being arrested for the rape, Wilkinson initially denied having sex, then claimed it had been consensual in a later interview, the court heard.

Sex register

Speaking after the case, Detective Inspector John Watts said: "This is the first conviction for Operation Phoenix but there is every indication it will not be the last.

"This should reassure people of our determination to detect serious offences no matter when they took place.

"The victim has been distressed for the last seven years and I hope this will give her some sense of finality."

Wilkinson was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for life.