The rapist trapped by DNA after 20 years
Justice at last for victim who was reviled as a 13-year-old when nobody believed her
A SCHOOLGIRL targeted by hate campaigners who claimed she wrongly accused a married man of rape has been vindicated after 20 years.
As a 13-year-old, she was spat at, beaten, bullied and forced to move house because she told police that publican Harry Davey raped her in his living room.
Davey denied any wrongdoing and forensic tests at the time were inconclusive.
However, advances in DNA technology have enabled detectives to trap Davey in a cold case review two decades after he committed the crime.
The victim, whose life has been ruined by her ordeal as a teenager, finally saw justice done when Davey was jailed for six years and eight months at Leeds Crown Court.
Davey, 65, had again denied responsibility when he was re- arrested l ast April, but eventually pleaded guilty to rape in the face of overwhelming DNA evidence.
Recorder Bernard Gateshill told him: ‘Your young victim spent 20 years thinking that you had got away with raping her. You have clearly ruined her life. To this day she is men- tally scarred by the experience that you inflicted upon her.
‘ The reality i s you have escaped justice for 20 years and your victim has had to wait 20 years for an acknowledgement that you wronged her.’
Davey, of Bradford, will be on licence when he is released and was also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
The victim, who is now 33 and cannot be identified for legal reasons, had gone to Davey’s smallholding in Bradford in 1992 to help a family friend feed pigs. She was allowed to ride horses there, along with other girls.
Sophie Drake, prosecuting, said she went to the defendant’s house thinking his wife was at home, but Davey was there and his young child was in bed. They were in the living room together when he grabbed her. The court heard Davey pushed her on to the sofa, pulled down her jeans and ignored her protests as he raped her.
Afterwards he asked if she was all right. ‘She said she was but she wasn’t,’ said Mrs Drake.
The schoolgirl told a friend what had happened and despite being sworn to secrecy her friend told her mother.
Word got back to the victim’s mother and Davey was arrested and interviewed.
He denied the attack and the evidence was not strong enough to charge him.
DNA traces were left on the girl’s clothing, and there were suggestions at the time that the victim had been having sex with her then boyfriend.
However, when the case was reopened by a specialist cold
‘Spat at in the street’
case team from West Yorkshire Police Davey, who had only picked up minor motoring convictions in the intervening years, was tested for DNA.
It was found that the chances of the traces from the girl’s clothing not being his were 33million to one.
A victim impact statement read to the court detailed the horrors that the young girl had endured in the wake of the original 1992 inquiry.
Mrs Drake said: ‘When she was interviewed last year she said people in her community would spit at her in the street when they saw her.
‘She was beaten up by three girls who also used to go to the farm.
‘She was slapped by Davey’s ex-wife and was bullied at school because people believed she had lied about being raped.
‘Her relationship with her mother suffered permanent damage as a result of her mother’s reaction, which was not sympathetic at the time.’
Richard Gioserano, defending, said Davey’s guilty plea spared his victim the trauma of having to come to court.
After the case Detective Inspector Howard Atkin said: ‘The destructive impact of his offending upon the victim simply cannot be imagined, and she has had to live with this for a very long time.
‘I would like to pay tribute to the victim and her family in this case who have shown great courage and resolve and have supported the prosecution throughout.
‘Justice, release and closure have finally been delivered to them.
‘This conviction shows once again that there is no hiding place for criminals. Our message is clear – there is no time limit on justice.’