David Sharp, from Devon, was found guilty of one count of rape and one count of indecent assault following a trial at Leeds Crown Court. He has been remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced on April 23. Sharp raped the woman on October 2, 1977, when he was 18 years old.
The victim was a Leeds University student and it was her first night in the city. She woke at around 3am to the sound of a man smashing a window and entering her room. According to West Yorkshire Police, the man wore a ski mask throughout the attack, sexually assaulted and raped her before fleeing through the front door.
At the heart of this investigation is a woman who has been scarred by the events of 48 years ago for her whole adult life. She has told officers that she remembers the crime committed against her on that day in 1977 like it was yesterday.
The offence was reported and investigated at the time, but no suspect was identified. West Yorkshire Police's Major Investigation Review Team reopened the case as part of a cold case review in 2023. Detectives obtained a DNA profile from the offender, but it did not initially match anyone on police databases.
Further enquiries identified a familial link to a close family member of Sharp, leading to a DNA sample from Sharp that matched the offender's profile. Police confirmed Sharp had been living in Leeds at the time of the attack. ' He added, 'Sharp has consistently denied this offence and taken no responsibility for his actions.
Sharp has consistently denied this offence and taken no responsibility for his actions. The evidence we were able to gather was compelling and has resulted in him being convicted of this offence.
' The exact familial relationship that led to identifying Sharp has not been disclosed. The specific forensic advances or techniques used to obtain and match the DNA profile also remain unclear. Advances in forensic science mean cases can still be solved many years later, giving victims the outcomes they deserve, Ord noted.