Rapist locked up 29 years on

A man has been locked up for eight-and-a-half years after admitting raping a  Rotherham girl almost 30 years ago.

Christopher Sykes, aged 46, from Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to the crime in July this year at Sheffield Crown Court after the incident was re-examined by South Yorkshire Police’s Cold Case Review Team and he was trapped by DNA technology.

His Honour Judge Simon Lawler said the attack was “every woman’s worst nightmare.”

Sykes was 17 and lived locally in Canklow when he attacked his 16-year-old victim back in 1981.

The woman remains deeply affected by her ordeal to this day, the court heard.

Det Sgt Ian Harding, who runs the Rotherham cold case team, said afterwards: “It’s a good result. You can see the affect on the woman herself, she’s both elated and really sad.”