Each of the five men pictured here were caught following advances in forensic science and the creation of a South Yorkshire Police cold case team which led to some cases being re-examined, and to detectives finally tracing the criminals responsible.
In some cases included in this list, the men were snared after committing additional crimes. The progression of DNA testing in the interim meant it was possible to link them to their previous crime upon their arrest, leading to them being prosecuted them for both sets of offences.
If you know of a cold case success that you think should be featured in this list please email: [email protected]
5. Jeremiah Sheridan: Vile rapist who attacked woman with cerebral palsy in own home caught by police 18 years later
Sickening thug, Jeremiah Sheridan, got away with his crimes for years, but was finally jailed for 16-and-a-half years in September 2009 for brutally raping a woman in May 1991, then aged 45, who suffered from cerebral palsy and used a wheelchair. Sheridan, a traveller and door-to-door salesman from Billericay, Essex, was caught following 18 years on the run after officers from South Yorkshire Police's Cold Case review team re-examined their evidence following advances in DNA testing techniques. Sheridan's past began to catch up with him in 2005 when he was arrested for a public order offence in Cambridgeshire and gave a false name – Dan O'Brien. He was never charged but his DNA was stored on the National Database and, when South Yorkshire Police re-examined the case, a cross-match with a sample from the scene turned up the Dan O'Brien sample. When police cross-checked it with fingerprints they discovered Sheridan's true identity. Speaking in March 2010, the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "It proved very difficult to trace Sheridan - but after the case was highlighted on Crimewatch in 2008, South Yorkshire Police got several new leads including one that Sheridan was in Australia. He was arrested on his return at Heathrow airport and, having pleaded guilty, he was sentenced to 16-and-a-half years." Photo: SYP
6. Sickening sex offender caught 14 years after horrific crime
Harry Musson was jailed for six years in October 2010 after he admitted breaking into the house of a Barnsley single mum in 1996 and forcing the terrified woman to perform a degrading sex act on him as her two young children slept in the room next door. Musson was wearing a balaclava at the time. This came just a year after Musson, then of Foster Street, Stairfoot, Barnsley, was locked up for 12 years in 2009 after South Yorkshire Police's Cold Case Review Team used new forensic techniques to link him to a rape and burglary committed in 1990. He broke into the home of a 35-year-old woman who lived in Barugh Green, Barnsley, and raped her - then stole jewellery from his violated victim. Then in 2010, forensic scientists working with cold case investigators, linked his DNA to the second attack. Corinne Wilson, prosecuting Musson's 2010 conviction, said the woman had woken to find Musson at the foot of her bed on June 11, 1996. "She couldn't see his face. She tried to jump up and back away from him. He put his right hand over her mouth and grabbed at her," she added. She said Musson turned the woman on to her front and tried to rape her but she managed to push him off. He then forced her to perform a sex act on him. Afterwards he simply got up and walked out of the bedroom telling her to ‘be quiet'. Miss Wilson said Musson was caught because his DNA profile was on the national database and when police revisited the case it was compared with a swab taken from the victim in 1996. In a moving victim impact statement the woman said she had lived in fear for years as she didn't know the identity of her attacker. She would scrub her mouth with her toothbrush until her gums bled and binge ate, putting on three stone to make herself unattractive to men. | SYP Photo: SYP
7. James Lloyd: Rotherham shoe rapist jailed after evading justice for more than 20 years
Serial 'shoe fetish' rapist James Lloyd attacked women in the Rotherham and Barnsley area between 1983 and 1986, targeting females aged between 18 and 54-years-old. On each occasion, Lloyd preyed upon lone women walking in high heels after nights out with friends, before dragging them to secluded locations and raping them. Lloyd took the high heels of his victims on at least two occasions. For 17 years, Lloyd roamed free after carrying out the horrifying attacks, but the net began to close in on him after South Yorkshire Police reopened the investigation, and looked into whether advancements in forensic technology would help them to finally snare the criminal responsible. DNA profiling led police to Lloyd's sister who had been arrested once for drink-driving, but when she contacted Lloyd to say police had contacted her about the investigation he rushed home and attempted to kill himself, only to be saved by his son. A chance comment from his wife, who suggested to police that he spent a lot of time alone in the office of the printing firm he ran and did not allow anyone into the space, resulted in police searching the premises and finding 126 pairs of used women's stiletto heels. Lloyd was finally arrested in 2006 - more than 20 years after committing his first crimes - and subsequently pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and two counts of attempted rape. He was handed an indeterminate sentence and was ordered to spend at least 15 years in custody, but this sentence was reduced in the Court of Appeal and he went on to serve seven years in total. Photo: SYP