DNA breakthrough sees Bristol man jailed after 'horrific' sexual assault in Sheffield

A man from Bristol who sexually assaulted a teenage girl as she walked home from a night out has been jailed more than 30 years after the attack.

Raymond Ellis chased his teenage victim before dragging her along a passageway behind Skinnerthorpe Road in Sheffield and assaulting her.

The 63-year-old, from Eastville, has now been sentenced to five years in prison over the attack, which happened in March 1987.

His victim, who was 17 years old, was returning from a night out with friends when Ellis attacked her.

It took 33 years for police to track him down after advances to forensic science enabled investigators to match his DNA to a sample taken from the leather jacket the victim was wearing at the time.

When Ellis was arrested in Bristol in August 2019, he claimed to have lost his memory after he was attacked by poachers on a salmon farm in Scotland.

Speaking after he was jailed, Dave Stopford from South Yorkshire Police, said: “This was a horrific attack on a 17-year-old girl as she made her way home from a night out.

"The victim has had to live with this for the past 33 years not knowing who her attacker was. She had to re-live a traumatic incident (and) has shown immense courage, patience and trust in us to do so.“

Ellis was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on May 13.