Sexual predator sentenced following DNA match in ‘cold case’ from nearly three decades ago

A man who sexually assaulted a schoolgirl as she walked home from a library nearly three decades ago has been sentenced at Newport Crown Court.

Richard Downey, now 55, sexually assaulted the teenager who was wearing a school uniform on 23 September 1997, on a footpath near Wylie, Blackwood. Armed with a screwdriver, Downey had come up behind the victim and put his hands over her mouth. During the attack he touched the girl sexually and restrained her as he masturbated. The young victim managed to run away after a struggle.

A DNA sample of semen was recovered from the victim’s shoe at the time but could not be matched. However, a forensic breakthrough in 2022 led to Downey being identified and arrested.

A jury convicted him of three offences, all relating to the same attack on a 13-year-old girl, after hearing the evidence in the case.

Catherine Miles of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Richard Downey subjected a child to an appalling and frightening sexual assault as she walked home from a library. He might have thought that after all these years he could get away with his crime, but DNA evidence presented at trial was able to prove that he was in fact the culprit.

“His sentence today shows that the Crown Prosecution Service is committed to bringing offenders to justice, when the legal test to do so is met, regardless of the passage of time.

“We hope that knowing her attacker has finally been brought to justice gives the victim some comfort.”

Richard Downey was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment with an extended license period of two years. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life and made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a Restraining Order indefinitely.