Man jailed for 1997 sex assault on 13-year-old after DNA 'breakthrough'

A man who sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl as she walked home in her school uniform nearly 30 years ago has been jailed following a DNA evidence "breakthrough".

Richard Downey, now 55, attacked the teenager on 23 September 1997 on a footpath near Wyllie in Caerphilly county.

Newport Crown Court heard on Friday how the girl had left a library with two friends but split off to take a shortcut home when Downey came up behind her, armed with a screwdriver, pulled her to the ground, lay on top of her and sexually touched her.

Sentencing him to eight years in prison, Judge Daniel Williams said: "You must have been lying in wait to find your victim... who you intended to terrorise."

Downey was found guilty at a trial in December of two counts of indecent assault and one of committing an act of indecency with a child.

Jurors heard the victim initially thought there was a jogger behind her as she walked down the "secluded" lane and moved over to let him past.

But Downey, who had pulled his T-shirt over his head to conceal his identity, pushed her to the ground, sexually touched her, "incited her to touch his penis" and then masturbated on her.

When she tried to get away, he restrained her again, putting his hands over her mouth, and was only stopped when the sound of a car prompted him to run away.

The attack was reported to police and semen found on the victim's shoe was examined but no DNA match was found at the time.

James Wilson, prosecuting, told the court a DNA sample was taken from Downey on 25 February 2022 in relation to "an unrelated child sex matter that did not proceed", in which he admitted having sex with a 14-year-old girl he met online, but claimed he thought she was 18.

The sample taken "provided a hit on the database" which led to his arrest for the 1997 attack, Wilson said.

In a statement read in court, the victim said: "While the attack lasted only a few minutes, the impact it has had on me has lasted a lifetime."

She recalled her "immeasurable" shock and fear, adding: "I was so much smaller than my attacker and in no way able to defend myself.

"The one thing I will never forget is the fishy smell of his hands as he put his hand over my mouth to stifle my screams."

She explained how afterwards, she ran to a main road, flagging down a woman driving past.

"I had never run so fast in my life," she said. "I recall shaking and her hugging me and helping me to get home to my parents.

"I had to continue living with what had happened to me."

She added she was no longer able to walk to or from school alone, or to use the footpath where she was attacked.

When she was asked to re-watch her 1997 interview, she said it struck her that she was "so obviously a child".

"I wasn't sexually active, I'd never had a boyfriend or kissed a boy. The attack took something from me that day - I'm not sure quite what, maybe innocence. Nothing was the same after that."

She added: "I never thought my attacker would be brought to justice but now I can draw a line under this whole incident."

Francis Fitzgibbon, defending, said his client understood his sentence would be one of imprisonment, adding he had been a "responsible family man" in the years since.

"He has lived an otherwise decent, responsible life. He has worked hard, and it's all been for nothing now," he said.

Sentencing Downey to eight years with an extended licence period of two years, the judge added: "You were a 26-year-old who had a two-year-old daughter.

"No doubt, after you had done what had done, you went home to your family, presenting as if nothing had happened.

"You moved on, [the victim] could not. [She] has had to live with what you did to her.

"It is clear you never thought you would be caught. You are wholly unburdened by guilt and you are arrogant beyond measurement.

"Your hubris is astonishing."

Downey will serve two thirds of the eight-year sentence in custody before being eligible for parole and will also be subject to a sexual harm prevention order and a restraining order for life.

Following the sentence, Catherine Miles of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "Richard Downey... might have thought that after all these years he could get away with his crime but DNA evidence... was able to prove that he was the culprit.

"We hope that knowing her attacker has finally been brought to justice gives the victim some comfort."