A Welsh man has been jailed for eight years for a 1997 sexual attack on a 13-year-old. Richard Downey, now 55, has been identified in a new DNA ‘breakthrough’ which found his semen on the victim’s shoe nearly thirty years after the crime was committed. The assault itself took place in 1997, where Downey followed a thirteen-year-old girl home from school on a footpath near Wyllie in Caerphilly County.
In Newport County Court, on Friday 23 January, it was revealed that Downey approached the young girl, who was dressed in her school uniform, from behind and dragged her to the ground, armed with a screwdriver. At the time of the attack, the semen on the young victim’s shoe did not trace back to Downey.
Prosecutor James Wilson explained how DNA was taken from Downey on February 25, 2022, in relation to an ‘unrelated child sex matter that did not proceed.’ It was then when Downey admitted engaging in sexual activities with a 14-year-old girl he had previously met online, who he claimed, thought was eighteen. The DNA sample retrieved ‘provided a hit on the database,’ connecting him to the 1997 attack, leading to his arrest.
Jurors of the court heard how the victim, at the time, assumed that a jogger was passing her from behind down the ‘secluded’ alley, before Downey pulled over his T-shirt, to conceal his identity, and attacked. Judge Daniel Williams expressed: ‘you must have been lying in wait to find your victim... who you intended to terrorise.’ The fifty-five-year-old was found guilty after his December trial on two counts of indecent assault, and one count of committing an act of indecency on a child.
In the victim’s statement, she said that ‘while the attack lasted only a few minutes, the impact it has had on me has lasted a lifetime.’ She continued: ‘I was so much smaller than my attacker and in no ways was able to defend myself. The only thing I will never forget is the fishy smell of his hands as he put his hand over my mouth to stifle my screams.’
The victim revealed how from then on she was no longer able to walk to or from school alone, or walk down the footpath where her assault took place. Despite the ‘immeasurable’ impact the attack had on her, she ‘had to continue living with what had happened.’
‘I wasn’t sexually active; I’d never had a boyfriend or kissed a boy. The attack took something from me that day – I’m not sure quite what, maybe innocence. Nothing was the same after that.’
Downey will have to serve two thirds of his eight-year sentence in custody before being eligible for parole. He will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order and restraining order, for life.
Francis Fitzgibbon, defending, explained that although the accused has accepted his punishment, imprisonment, he was a ‘responsible family man’, and had ‘lived an otherwise decent, responsible life. He has worked hard, and it’s all been for nothing now.’ However, after being sentenced to eight-year imprisonment, Judge Williams added: ‘you were a twenty-six-year-old who had a two-year-old daughter. No doubt, after you had done what had done, you went home to your family, presenting as if nothing had happened,’ whilst the victim had to live with ‘what you did to her.’
Catherine Miles of the Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘Richards Downey... might have thought that after all these years he could get away with his crime but DNA evidence... was able to prove that he was the culprit. We hope that knowing her attacker has finally been brought to justice gives the victim some comfort.’