DNA evidence catches rapist in cold case probe

A MAN already serving a nine-year prison sentence for rape has been jailed for a further six years for raping another woman 21 years ago.

New developments in DNA technology enabled experts to find a one in a billion match with Stanley Daniels and charge him over the rape of a teenager in Sandgate, near Folkestone, Kent, in 1989.

The 57-year-old, formerly of Blackbull Road, Folkestone, is serving a sentence for a rape he committed in Folkestone in March 2005, and his latest sentence will not begin until that one has been carried out, police said.

Officers from the cold case team started re-investigating the original rape last year and samples taken from the victim back in 1989 were re-examined to see if developments in DNA technology could give them any new leads.

Daniels’ DNA matched and he was charged with rape in April this year.

Daniels, who was also sentenced to six months in a detention centre in 1971 for indecently assaulting a 16-year-old girl, pleaded guilty to rape when he appeared at Maidstone Crown Court yesterday.

The court heard that in the early hours of October 20, 1989, an 18-year-old woman was walking along the promenade on Sandgate Esplanade when a man wearing a balaclava approached her and threatened her with a knife before pulling her to the ground and raping her.

Daniels, who was working as a fisherman at the time, fled the scene while his victim found a phone box and called police.

After the sentencing, Detective Inspector Dave Withers said: “In 1989 a young woman’s life was changed dramatically by this horrific, unprovoked attack. Twenty-one years have passed since then and she has lived with this every day. This is tribute to the victim’s strength of character that she has been willing to support this prosecution and been prepared to give evidence, even after all this time.

“We have a duty to give justice to the victims of attacks like this one.

“For many years the victims may be looking over their shoulder wondering if the person walking past them in the street or standing next to them in the supermarket queue could be their attacker. And it could be the person responsible might still be offending and we need to protect the public.”