He owns a thriving business and £500k house. Yesterday he was jailed for a rape he thought he’d got away with 26 years ago

A WeALtHY company director who escaped justice for 26 years has finally been jailed for a horrific sex attack.

Advances in DnA technology allowed cold-case detectives to identify Mark carnelley as the man who forced a 25-year-old woman into a dark alley and raped her in 1990. He told the terrified victim: ‘Do as i say – i have a knife.’

carnelley, a 52-year-old married father of two, was brought to justice after police took his DnA when he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a teenager outside his house.

Jailing him for seven years and ordering him to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for life, a judge said: ‘thank heavens for science.’

carnelley came to the authorities’ attention in 2010, when he complained about a group of noisy youths outside his £500,000 fivebedroom, detached home in Gamston, nottingham.

At the time, he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting one of the teenagers and let off with a caution. But a sample of his DnA was taken and stored on the national database.

Five years later, DnA from the rape victim was tested with up-todate techniques during a review of unsolved crimes, and threw up a match to carnelley. A date was set for his trial, but on tuesday he changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced at nottingham crown court.

David Allen, prosecuting, said carnelley pulled his victim into an alley in nottingham city centre on the night of September 14, 1990, claiming he had a knife – although no weapon was ever seen or found.

carnelley raped the woman and threatened to hurt her before fleeing. in a statement read out in court, the victim said: ‘it made me feel like i wanted to rip my insides out and my body didn’t belong to me any more. i never got over what happened to me.’ Passing sentence, Judge Stuart Rafferty Qc told carnelley: ‘You are 52 years of age. Halfway through your life. not a young man, not a teenager, but halfway through your life. At the age of 26 you did something absolutely unforgivable.

‘As the time went by, you simply confined her and that night to memory. Were it not for advances in science you would never have been caught. thank heavens sometimes for science.’

the judge said that after the attack, carnelley built his life, had children he was proud of, and forged a career – but his victim ‘had nothing’ because of what he did to her.

carnelley left school at 16 and after 30 years in the printing industry, became managing director of Precision inks Ltd, which turns over six-figure profits.

He sent his children to the £5,500per-term trent college school in Long eaton, Derbyshire, from the ages of 11 to 18.

neighbours of the carnelley family spoke of their shock. One woman, who lives opposite, said: ‘He seemed a perfectly normal, quiet family man... but obviously he had a very Trapped by DNA: Mark Carnelley and, above, his £500,000 detached home in Nottingham, dark secret. they have got a lovely house with an extension and nice cars. they both had personalised number plates, but his was up for sale a few weeks ago. i guess we know why now. it won’t be much use to him in prison, will it?’

Another neighbour, who also asked not to be named, added: ‘it just shows you don’t really know anyone.

‘He looked totally respectable. He had obviously done very well in life and on the face of it had it all. But it looks like he couldn’t escape his

‘On the face of it he had it all’

past.’ ian Way, mitigating, said: ‘this is a 26-year-old case and the defendant is a very different person to the person he was then.’

He told the court carnelley had ‘no specific recollection of this incident’, but had acknowledged the weight of the case against him and pleaded guilty.

A nottinghamshire Police spokesman said: ‘this was a terrifying ordeal for the victim.

‘She is a truly incredible woman, who has waited almost 27 years for justice to be served.’