But 18 months ago he was arrested by police after he was found performing an indecent act in his car outside a Sheffield care home.

The incident triggered a sequence of events which today saw him jailed for 12 years.

Read more: Face of a nightmare

It's not the first time Shaw has tried to evade justice.

He was convicted of the indecency offence in his absence after failing to attend court on 10 occasions and his DNA profile was added to the national DNA database.

Months later - and by pure chance - staff working on South Yorkshire Police's cold case review team Operation Minerva reopened the investigation into the rape of a 19-year-old woman in Stannington in 1989.

Det Sgt Ian Harding, from the team, said although the original police file had been destroyed, DNA taken at the time from the victim's clothes had been archived at the Forensic Science Service's UK warehouse.

When the rapist's DNA was entered into the national database, Kevin Shaw's name popped up - he was a match.

DS Harding said: "It was very lucky that it was on there. We would have been struggling otherwise. He hadn't ever been suspected in this case so if he hadn't been sampled we may not have found him."

The detective said Shaw hadn't been linked to any other unsolved rape cases so far.

But he added: "There are no specific cases we are looking at him for. However, this is early days for Operation Minerva and we are looking at new cases constantly to see if we can find a fresh break and start taking them forward."

Shaw was a newly married man with a pregnant wife when he lay in wait for his 19-year-old victim in Stannington.

The rapist, who is still married to wife Linda, claimed he was renovating a house in Popple Street, Firth Park, in 1989 which is why he was in Sheffield.

Shaw and Linda had been married for just four months in September 1989 and lived in her house in Bamford when he raped the terrified youngster.

At the time, Shaw's father had been told he was terminally ill and Linda was expecting their first child together - a son.

DS Harding said Shaw had previously made a living renovating property and offering mortgage and financial advice but he is currently unemployed for medical reasons.

Shaw was snared by the cold case review team which was set up last year to review serious unsolved crimes such as murder and stranger rape.

There are thousands of unsolved cases but it is the most serious offences the team is revisiting.

The team of five, including DS Harding, is made up of retired detectives who have be re-employed as civilian investigators.

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