EIGHT who raped a woman has been jailed for five years, more than 30 years after the attack.

Raymond May grabbed the woman from behind while she was walking home from Ramside Hall Hotel, near Durham City, late on November 4, 1978.

He put his arm around her neck and said: “Don’t look round”, Durham Crown Court heard yesterday.

May, then 17, dragged the woman over a verge, a hedge and 100 yards into a field before putting her through an ordeal lasting up to an hour, Amanda Rippon, prosecuting, said.

When she screamed, he banged her head against the ground.

After a while, the woman realised her shouts aggravated her attacker and she began trying to talk him out of it, the court heard. However, after about an hour, he lost his patience and raped her, Ms Rippon said. May then warned her he would hurt her if she told the police, before running off.

While May married the summer after the attack, his victim was left scared to go out, the court heard.

An innocent man, known to May, was wrongfully arrested over the incident, but still May did not come forward to confess.

May, now 49, of Fair View, West Rainton, near Durham City, was only brought to justice thanks to advances in DNA testing, following a cold case review. A sample taken from the crime scene matched his DNA, which was on a police database following a conviction he received in 2000 for being drunk and disorderly.

The father-of-four was arrested at his home on December 22, last year.

Ian West, for May, said: “It’s not difficult to envisage the chaos and shock when, on December 22, with the Christmas presents under the tree and a family Christmas in prospect, the police came to Mr May’s door and accused him of being a rapist.”

May admitted a single charge of rape.

Mr West said his client had rehabilitated himself since and, by pleading guilty, spared his victim having to relive her experience in a trial.

Judge Peter Armstrong sentenced May to five years in prison and ordered he be placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.