Justice for cold case rape victim

The woman was attacked in Bourne Hill Gardens, Salisbury, in 1983

A rape victim has said that bringing her attacker to justice after a quarter of a century, was "hell".

Peter Harfield, 57, was jailed for six years on Monday after being convicted of rape by Salisbury Crown Court.

Wiltshire Police had run a cold case review and officers tracked him down using new DNA techniques.

The victim told the BBC: "I wanted him to be found, but to go through it all again wasn't a nice thing. It just brought it all back."

'Despicable'

Harfield, of Crescent Tarrant, Andover, Hampshire did not deny having sex with his victim but said it was consensual.

Sentencing Harfield to six years in jail and ordering him to be placed on the sex offenders register for life, Judge Keith Cutler described his crime as "despicable."

The victim, who was attacked in 1983 in Bourne Hill Gardens, Salisbury, when she was 19, said the incident had had a major impact in her life and she had not been able to do "normal things".

"I've not been able [to take] the children to the park on my own, or just walking anywhere on my own, I need to have someone with me," she said.

"At night, I'd never go anywhere on my own at night.

"I never thought it would get this far in a million years. It's been hell for the last year or so."

Following the trial, Det Insp Sean Memory said: "This is a massive message, if you've committed crimes as long ago as 1983 or even earlier, we may come knocking on your door.

"We will follow up old cases and we continue to do so.

"Advances in technology allow us to do this and we are determined to catch people and make them pay for the crimes they had committed."