A vile double rapist who went undetected for more than 25 years has finally been caught by chance – after police took a DNA sample from his SON.
Former Territorial Army soldier Ian Phipps, 50, thought he had escaped punishment for raping the two women after separate attacks in 1986 and 1991.
But he was snared when his son David Phipps, 25, was arrested and given a police caution and officers entered his DNA into the national database last September.
His DNA matched those of the historic rape attacks – which took place when he was just TWO years old.
Suspicion fell on his father, despite Mr Phipps Snr having no previous convictions or cautions.
Advances in technology meant the probability of the DNA profile coming from someone unrelated to the attacker was one in a billion.
When police began to probe Phipps they found that he had links to the area and matched the description given by both women.
Both described their attacker as wearing Army trousers and heavy boots – and Phipps was serving in the TA at the time.
He originally denied the attacks when interviewed police and was convinced that his DNA would not match that found on the victims.
When a match was made Phipps claimed it must have been a “dreadful mistake” but he pleaded guilty to the historic crimes at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent.
Sentencing Phipps to 15 years in jail, Judge Charles Macdonald claimed “extraordinary damage” had been done to both the victims.
He said: “Is there any real remorse here?
“There were no guilty pleas until he saw evidence that the conviction was inevitable. I see no real remorse.
“You subjected these complainants to horrific ordeals which plainly changed their lives. These are wicked crimes.”
The first rape saw Phipps target a 14-year-old schoolgirl on her return from school in Chatham, Kent, as she took a shortcut across some cement works on January 8, 1986.
He approached the 14-year-old schoolgirl and put his arm behind her head and a hand over her mouth. The girl pleaded: “Let me go. I won’t tell anyone” but Phipps pushed her over and raped her.
Five years later on June 6, 1991, Phipps raped a 23-year-old woman who sat down to eat her lunch as she worked in quiet woodland, in Kent.
Both victims gave matching descriptions of their attacker but Phipps was never caught.
He grabbed hold of her and she told him: “Come on, don’t be stupid.” She realised what was going to happen and pleaded: “Please don’t do this to me.”
She tried to escape but after a struggle he managed to rape her – as she begged him not to make her pregnant.
The younger victim watched on from the public gallery as Phipps was jailed and placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
Michael Haynes, defending, told the court since the rapes Phipps had undergone a kidney transplant, he was diabetic and had suffered a stroke.
He said: “He feel he won’t come out of the other end.”
Det Supt Rob Vinson, of the Cold Case Investigation Team, reassured women that such cases are rare.
He said: “Stranger rapes are extremely rare which is why it was important to get a result in the case of Ian Phipps.”
