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I’m a cold case detective – we caught perv who violently raped dog walker using breakthrough in DNA tech.. here’s how
COLD case detectives have revealed how they cracked a 30-year-long rape mystery thanks to breakthrough DNA technology.
Anthony Carling, 63, dragged a woman into bushes and raped her in Harlequin Field in Roath, Cardiff, Wales, in 1991.
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He had approached her from behind before punching the woman, who was walking her dogs at the time, to the ground.
Speaking in 2019, the woman he attacked described the barbaric ordeal as "a nightmare" adding "my life has been virtually over for the last 30 years".
In a chilling victim impact statement, she said: "This horrendous offence destroyed my life.
"They say life begins at 40 but my life ended at that age."
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Following the attack, the victim handed the clothes she was wearing to police but they were never able to trace Carling.
For years, the sadistic attacker, from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, evaded capture.
That was until detectives revisiting the case discovered a semen stain on the victims coat.
Carling had provided a DNA swab for an unrelated matter in 2013 and officers were able to link him to the crime.
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James Phillips, a cold case investigator, explained new precision DNA technology means cops can bust criminals in ways not possible 30-years-ago.
He told ITV's Cold Case Detectives on Thursday: "When I joined the police force in 1988 DNA wasn't a thing.
"Whereas previously you would need a large amount of blood or a large amount of semen for a profile.
"Now they can pick up DNA profiles from a slap from the back of the hand on someone's face, it's amazing."
Cops were able to charge Carling with rape and attempted rape thanks to the DNA technology.
He admitted to both charges and was sentenced to 12 years in prison in October 2019.
Carling had in fact been jailed in 1989 for following a woman down a lane and indecently assaulting her.
The rape happened within a year of Carling being released from prison for that attack.
On last night's documentary, cops also re-examined the case of Carol Ann Stephens.
Carol, just six, was snatched from her Cardiff home on April 7, 1959, while playing with pals in the street.
Two weeks later on April 22, her body was found in a ravine 60 miles away in the isolated hamlet of Horeb, Carmarthenshire.
It's thought she had been dead for a week before being discovered in the stream.
In the months leading up to her murder, Carol had spoken of her "new uncle".
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But despite making circumstantial developments in the case, modern DNA testing in ITV's documentary could not return a conclusive result into how Carol died.
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