Forensic evidence ties pensioner to knifepoint rape of woman in Sheffield city centre in 1985, court told
Forensic evidence has tied a 76-year-old man to a rape reported in Sheffield city centre more than 40 years ago, a court has heard.
David Hill has gone on trial accused of raping a woman at knifepoint in Sheffield back in 1985.
The OAP denies the charge.
Opening the case at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, February 3, Louise Revell, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said a woman in her 20s at the time was raped at an underground car park in Barker’s Pool.
On September 7, 1985, just after midnight, the complainant - who The Star has chosen not to name - returned to her car after spending a night with friends at the nearby Josephine’s nightclub.
“As she opened her driver’s side car door a man approached her from behind and held a sharp instrument to her throat,” Ms Revell said.
The man then told her to get into the car and once she was in the passenger seat, instructed her to remove her clothing while keeping the sharp instrument - which the prosecution claim was a knife - against her back, the barrister continued.
Jurors were told that the man subsequently raped the woman.
The complainant drove home and told her husband - who she was separated from but still living with at the time - before reporting the matter to the police, the court was told.
While investigations were undertaken at the time, and forensic evidence examined, jurors were told police were not able to find a DNA match.
The complainant passed away in the 1990s, the court heard.
South Yorkshire Police’s ‘cold case’ team carried out a review in 2021 and a DNA match was identified, jurors were told.
Police subsequently investigated, and on March 23, 2022, David Hill was arrested, Ms Revell explained.
“He was interviewed under caution by police and gave a prepared statement through a solicitor,” the prosecutor said.
In the statement, which was summarised in court, Hill said he had never raped anyone and could not say where he was on the night.
It was also said to jurors that Hill admitted to having gone out in Sheffield and to Josephine’s in the past, and said that he had experience of one-night stands, including with married women.
While he states that he does not remember having sexual relations with the complainant, the prosecutor told the court, he says that if he did it would have been consensual.
Ms Revell told jurors how DNA evidence found on a dress worn by the complainant on the night of the alleged incident was found to have matched Hill’s.
Hill, of Clifton Bank, Rotherham, attended court using a walking stick.
The public gallery was full throughout proceedings.
After opening the case, evidence was presented to the jury including a written statement from the complainant given to the police after the alleged assault, and through witness statements provided by the complainant’s then-husband and ‘best friend’ who showed up in court.
The friend explained how her, the complainant and another woman went out in Sheffield on the night of September 6, 1985.
She said they visited three venues, ending in Josephine’s, with the friend leaving at around 11.40pm to meet her husband.
The complainant’s statement, read out by the prosecuting barrister, detailed how she had drunk around six glasses of wine throughout the evening and left shortly after her friend, walking to where she had parked her car when the alleged incident occurred.
”I felt if I didn’t cooperate with him he would try to injure me, or kill me,” the statement added.
The statement read to jurors went on to describe the alleged attacker as white, of a medium build and aged 32 to 34.
Her then-husband said in court that once she returned home, the complainant was ‘hysterical’, adding: “She was crying, she was hysterical, she wasn’t making much sense.
“I was just trying to calm her down initially - that was my first thought, to stop her crying so I could find out what actually happened.”
After she revealed what happened, he called police and she was taken to West Bar police station where she underwent a medical examination, the court heard.
Under cross examination, defence barrister Dermot Hughes questioned how the case progressed, with the husband explaining how he was shown CCTV of the entrance of Josephine’s from that night where he identified the complainant leaving alone.
The defence barrister also asked whether the complainant would regularly go out with friends, to which the husband responded ‘not particularly, no’.
He added: “We didn’t have that sort of relationship where we would ask each other where we were going all the time.”
From the witness box, the complainant’s friend explained in court how the following morning she had called the complainant, adding ‘she just didn’t sound very good - she sounded upset’.
“She was a quiet person anyway and I asked if she was okay, and she said yes, but there was just something about that phone call that made me think otherwise,” the witness told jurors.
The friend then headed to the shop and picked up a copy of The Star, she explained.
“I was walking back up the hill when I looked at the headlines and it was the front page - I read it, a woman raped in Josephine’s car park,” she told the court.
“I knew straight away.”
The friend called the complainant again, before driving to her home, she said.
During cross examination, Mr Hughes questioned how often the friends went out and if the complainant had mentioned having sexual relations with another man.
The witness told jurors the two of them would go out most weeks, and there had been no mention of another sexual partner.
Mr Hughes also questioned how much the complainant had to drink that night, asking if she had ‘six glasses of wine’, to which she responded: “No, definitely not”.
The trial continues, with evidence from forensic experts and police officers from the time set to be shared.