A 57-year-old convicted rapist already serving a prison term has been handed an additional six-year sentence at Maidstone Crown Court after cold case investigators used forensic advancements to solve a historic knifepoint rape committed 21 years earlier.
Stanley Daniels, formerly residing at Blackbull Road, Folkestone, appeared in the dock for sentence having entered a guilty plea to rape. At the time of the proceedings, Daniels was already serving a nine-year prison sentence imposed for a separate rape committed in Folkestone in March 2005.
The court heard that the historic assault occurred during the early hours of 20 October 1989. The victim, an 18-year-old woman, was walking along the coastal promenade on Sandgate Esplanade when Daniels confronted her. Disguised in a balaclava, Daniels—who worked locally as a fisherman—pulled out a knife and threatened the woman before forcing her down onto the ground adjacent to the sea wall, where he carried out the rape.
Daniels fled the area, leaving the injured victim to locate a nearby telephone kiosk to call emergency services.
Detectives attached to the Kent Police cold case investigation team re-opened the inquiry and submitted retained forensic samples to the Forensic Science Service for modern analysis. Specialist testing generated a complete DNA profile matching Daniels, with the statistical probability of the DNA belonging to another unrelated individual calculated at one in a billion.
Faced with the forensic match, Daniels admitted the offence ahead of a scheduled Crown Court trial. The court was also told that Daniels had a previous conviction dating back to 1971, when he was sentenced to six months in a detention centre for the indecent assault of a 16-year-old girl.
Crown Prosecution Service representative Simon Ringrose stated that Daniels was left with no credible alternative other than to plead guilty once confronted with the conclusive scientific findings.
Detective Inspector Dave Withers stated:
“The damage done to a young woman’s confidence and self-esteem by an attack like this cannot be underestimated. In such cases victims could spend years looking over the shoulder wondering if the person walking past them in the street or standing next to them in the supermarket queue could be their attacker.”
The presiding judge at Maidstone Crown Court ordered Daniels to serve six years’ imprisonment, specifying that the new sentence must be served consecutively after the conclusion of his existing nine-year prison term.
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