- Ian Phipps snared after his son’s DNA matched samples from the attacks which took place in 1986 and 1991
- He was sentenced to 15 years jail as judge blasts his ‘wicked crimes’
No escape: Rapist Ian Phipps was tracked down after the DNA of his arrested son matched samples taken from his 1986 and 1991 victims
A double rapist who went undetected for nearly 30 years was finally caught by chance after police took a DNA sample from his son.
Former Territorial Army soldier Ian Phipps, 50, thought he had escaped punishment for raping a girl of 14 and a 23-year-old woman in separate attacks in 1986 and 1991.
He was tracked down after police entered the DNA of his son David Phipps, 25, into the national database when he was arrested and given a caution last September.
His DNA matched those of the historic rape attacks, the first of which happened before he was born the second of which which took place when he was just two years old.
Suspicion fell on his father, despite the elder Phipps having no criminal record, since the probability of the DNA profile coming from someone unrelated to the attacker was one in a billion.
When police began to investigate Phipps they found that he had links to the area and matched the description given by both women.
Both said their attacker as wearing Army trousers and heavy boots, and Phipps was serving in the TA at the time.
He had originally denied the attacks when police interviewed him and was convinced that his DNA would not match that found on the victims.
When a match was made Phipps initially claimed it must have been a ‘dreadful mistake’, but he later pleaded guilty to the historic crimes at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent.
Sentencing Phipps to 15 years in jail and placing him on the sex-offenders’ register indefinitely, Judge Charles Macdonald claimed ‘extraordinary damage’ had been done to both the victims.
‘Is there any real remorse here?’ he asked the convicted man. ‘There were no guilty pleas until he saw evidence that the conviction was inevitable. I see no real remorse.
‘You subjected these complainants to horrific ordeals which plainly changed their lives. These are wicked crimes.’
‘Wicked crimes’: Judge Charles Macdonald sitting at Maidstone Crown Court (pictured) said ‘extraordinary damage’ had been done to both of Phipps’ victims as he sentenced him to 15 years jail
In the first attack Phipps targeted a girl of only 14 as she took a shortcut across some cement works on her way home from school on January 8, 1986.
Tracked down: Phipps pictured in his younger days wearing the same kind of Army trousers both his victims described to police
He approached the 14-year-old schoolgirl and put his arm behind her head and a hand over her mouth. ‘Let me go. I won’t tell anyone,’ the girl pleaded, but Phipps pushed her over and raped her.
Five years later on June 6, 1991, Phipps raped a 23-year-old woman who had sat down to eat her lunch as she worked in quiet woodland, also in Kent.
He grabbed hold of her and she told him: ‘Come on, don’t be stupid.’ She realised what was going to happen and pleaded: ‘Please don’t do this to me.’
The woman tried to escape but after a struggle he raped her.
Both victims gave matching descriptions of their attacker but Phipps was never caught.
Michael Haynes, defending, told the court that since the rapes Phipps had undergone a kidney transplant, developed diabetes and suffered a stroke.
‘He feels he won’t come out of the other end,’ Mr Haynes said.
Detective Superintendant Rob Vinson, of Kent Police’s Cold Case Investigation Team, reassured women that such cases are rare.
‘Stranger rapes are extremely rare which is why it was important to get a result in the case of Ian Phipps,’ he said.
– dailymail.co.uk
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