An astonishing piece of detective worked led to t

An astonishing piece of detective worked led to the cap
ture of an escaped rapist who struck again whilst on the run.

Paul Sherlock, 27, was jailed for six years at Birmingham
Crown Court on March 23, 1987, after being convicted of rape.

He attacked a young woman in her bed after breaking into
her home in the dead of night in April 1986.

With a knife pressed to her throat and her sobbing young
child lying close by Sherlock raped the woman.

Sherlock fled after being released on compassionate leave
in September 1989 to attend his father’s funeral.

Within weeks he was in London raping again.

Detectives called in to investigate the attack were
alarmed at the brutality of the assault and particularly worried
that they might have a serial rapist on their hands.

That fear
was founded in part by Sherlock’s confession his latest victim
‘This is not the first time.

‘
But they had virtually nothing to go on.

The only clue was
that the spot where the attack took place would only be known to
someone familiar with the area and the attacker’s accent – either
Northern or from the Midlands.

Thus began a painstaking back-tracking of people who had
committed crimes – any crime – in the area who fitted the rap
ist’s description.

Finally their extraordinary, painstaking diligence paid off.

They had an excellent DNA sample and knew if they could put a
name to the attacker they had a watertight case.

They discovered that Sherlock, from Birmingham, had been
arrested in their area in the mid 1980s.

And in August 1895 he had been given 28 days jail for going
equipped for theft and failing to appear.

He was also a convicted rapist.

Sherlock had also been tried for rape in August 1982 at
Warwick Crown Court and acquitted.

A detective involved in the case said Sherlock had ‘showed no
emotion about raping women.

‘
Police, who regard Sherlock a ‘danger to women,’ also fear,
because of the opportunist nature of his attacks, that he may
have been responsible for other unreported assaults.

In his latest attack the handsome charmer easily found him
self another victim.

Mrs X, a married secretary from Croydon and a girl friend had
gone for a drink after work.

Sherlock and an unidentified chum
spotted the women in a Victoria pub and began chatting them up.

At about 10 p.

m.

Mrs X said she had to leave to catch a
train and Sherlock offered to escort her to the station.

But when she refused to go for a walk with him on the Thames
embankment the charm was switched off and he became menacing.

He frogmarched her down towards the river’s edge and into a
deserted underground garage area.

He smashed her in the face, bit her, then yanked off her
clothes and raped her repeatedly.

Sherlock’s first victim had also been bitten by him.

The distraught woman made her way home where she broke down
and revealed what had happened.

During the attack Sherlock had sickeningly boasted to his
terrified victim: ‘You don’t think you’re the first I have got
down here.

It’s worked everytime.

‘
During the trial defence counsel on behalf of Sherlock, who
did not give evidence, accused the woman of lying and suggested
that she had consented to sex.

Softly spoken Mrs X broke down during her evidence.

The
defence also claimed she had had sex on two earlier occasions
with Sherlock in equally sordid circumstances – once in a garden
and then behind a building shed.

She rejected the allegations and explained that because of
a ‘medical problem’ she found ‘sex painful.

‘
She also had a history of back trouble for which she had
been treated by an osteopath.

And at the time of the November 1989 attack she was not even
having regular sexual intercourse with her husband because of the
medical trouble.

She was also not ‘taking the pill.

‘
Sherlock was not arrested until September 1990.

He declined
to answer questions when interviewed.

He gave blood samples which were subsequently matched with
those of the rapist.

DNA profiling showed that there was a 1 in
400,000 chance that he was not the attacker.

Then nearly a year later – almost two years on from the
attack, brave Mrs X positively identified him as the man who had
raped her.

His defence was that she consented to sex.

He did not go
into the witness box to give evidence.

If he had, having accused the victim of lying, his previous
conviction for rape would have been revealed to the jury.

The jury are out considering their verdict today (Thursday).

ENDS BACKGROUND
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