DNA arrests

Under Operation Phoenix, officers have been using the latest DNA techniques to revisit sex cases from 1985 to 1999.

This week officers saw their first conviction under Operation Phoenix when Mark Wilkinson of Roker Baths Road, Sunderland, was jailed for five years.

A DNA sample, taken after Wilkinson was arrested recently for urinating in the street, matched with DNA taken after the unsolved rape of a 19-year-old student - seven years earlier.

Now police are set to make further arrests. Forensic scientists have examined 61 historical cases of rape and indecent assault and come up with 38 full DNA profiles. Eighteen of them have matched the DNA of those already on the National DNA Database.

Detective Inspector Peter Farrell, who heads Operation Phoenix, said: "We want to send a message of reassurance to the victims that Northumbria Police will continue to investigate serious sex crimes no matter when they were committed.

"Our message to those who think they've got away with it is to think again."

Police have also been probing whether a serial sex attacker could be responsible for nine sex attacks on girls and women in North Tyneside in the 1980s.

Officers had spotted a number of similarities between the attacks, which include rapes, sexually-motivated violence and indecent assaults, at the time.

Material was retained from the scenes in the 1980s but until now there were not the advances in technology to extract a DNA profile. They are awaiting results from the Forensic Science Service to make a definite link.

Police say the geographical location, method and descriptions of the attacker are similar. The victims, whose ages range from 13 to 35, were attacked either in the late evening or early hours when they were out on their own. They took place over 29 months.

There is no evidence so far to suggest the attacks could be linked to any current cases. Officers do not contact victims until they get solid forensic evidence.