Serial rapist brought to justice after advance in use of forensic science

A SERIAL rapist who attacked a woman in bed after breaking into her home has been brought to justice after 26 years.

Raymond Manners was finally caught through advances in forensic science.

Manners, 56, climbed through a window of the victim’s home in the Chapeltown area of Leeds on November 23, 1991, as she was asleep in bed.

The 25-year-old victim was subjected to the sex attack before Manners left the property.

Forensic evidence was later recovered but it was not possible to link it to a suspect.

Manners was arrested in 2012 when West Yorkshire Police carried out a cold case review which linked him to sex attacks on two woman in similar circumstances at properties in Leeds in 1979.

The rapist, who worked for Network Rail for 33 years, was jailed for 10 years in 2012 after pleading guilty to two offences of rape.

He was not charged with the 1991 offence at the time as he continued to deny his involvement.

Leeds Crown Court heard that police reviewed the case again last year and officers were able to establish that DNA recovered from the 1991 case belonged to Manners.

The defendant, formerly of Stoney Rock Lane, Burmantofts, pleaded guilty to rape.

He was given a further 12 years in prison, to be added to the sentence he is currently serving.

Judge Tom Bayliss, QC, said: “This case represents the ultimate nightmare for any woman asleep in her own home at night.

“To be burgled and subjected to the indignity of a violent sexual offence is to become the victim of a pitiless, wicked crime.”