Rapist jailed after case from 1985 solved with DNA

A rapist who attacked a woman at knifepoint in 1985 has been jailed for 15 years after modern DNA analysis placed him at the scene.

David Hill, 75, of Rotherham, was only identified after samples from the victim's clothing were retested using new methods.

The 27-year-old woman had been returning to an underground car park in Sheffield when she was raped with a knife being held to her neck, the city's crown court heard earlier.

Sentencing Hill more than 40 years after the crime was committed, Judge Peter Hampton said: "While you have gone unpunished for many years, the victim suffered with the damage done until her death."

The woman died 12 years after the attack and never saw her assailant face justice.

Sheffield Crown Court was told that Hill "waited in the shadows" for the victim, and though his DNA profile was retrieved at the time, testing techniques on material such as hair and fibres were much more basic.

An archived sample recovered by South Yorkshire Police officers was retested using cutting-edge technology in 2018 and a genetic DNA profile of a man was identified.

However, Hill had never been arrested in the intervening years so his profile was not on the national database.

In 2021, the breakthrough came when he was detained for a public order offence and his DNA was taken and matched.

Hill denied rape throughout his week-long trial but was found guilty by a jury.

In a victim impact statement, the woman's brother said she was "never the same" after the rape.

"Depression and the rape left her a shadow of her good-humoured self," he said.

"I do remember her telling me about a knife and how terrified she was, how she froze."

Judge Hampton praised police work which had seen extensive notes of the case kept that were eventually presented to the court, and highlighted the contribution of officer Rachel Morton to the "complex, large and wide-ranging" investigation.

Jailing Hill for 15 years, the judge added that he had "never shown one shred of remorse".

"She was subjected to a nightmarish attack. She was a brave woman."

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