Shoe rapist James Lloyd's chilling confession when South Yorkshire Police uncovered his crimes

Women in the Dearne Valley, between Rotherham and Barnsley, lived in fear of being raped in the mid 1980s because of numerous attacks as they made their way home from nights out.

James Lloyd’s attacks were carried out between 1983 and 1986. He was never caught and he went on to marry and have children, keeping his evil secret close to his chest.

But although Lloyd believed he had covered his tracks and gotten away with his sex attacks, his past eventually caught up with him two decades later and he was eventually jailed for his heinous crimes.

He was 26 when he started offending, tending to accost lone women as they made their way home from nights out, tie them up with their stockings and rape them.

In a sick twist, he used to steal their shoes, stockings or jewellery as a ‘trophy’ of his sex attacks.

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He went undetected for years, holding down a responsible job and being well respected in the community.

He evaded arrest for nearly 20 years in total until detectives in South Yorkshire Police’s cold case review team re-examined the rapes and all the forensic material they had retained over the years, including semen samples.

Checks with police databases brought up a list of 43 people as being possible relatives of the rapist, including his sister, whose DNA had been registered after she was processed for a drink-driving offence.

As police systematically made contact with those on the list, asking if they had any close male relatives, Lloyd’s sister told him officers had been in touch.

Worried that police were closing in, Lloyd attempted to take his own life later that day.

By then he was a married dad-of-two who had stopped offending when he met his wife. He attempted to kill himself in his home in Howell Gardens, Thurnscoe, but his suicide attempt failed and police were alerted.

Before his desperate attempt to kill himself he called a relative and confessed to committing serious offences 20 years earlier.

He also told paramedics “I was a b****** 20 years ago”.

When police searched his place of work, officers found dozens of pairs of shoes and stockings hidden behind a trap door. They discovered Lloyd had a shoe fetish and found numerous videos at his maritial home.

Det Sgt Sue Hickman, who carried out the DNA-related enquiries at the time, said: “This man believed he had got away with his crimes after so long, but this case just goes to show how advances in forensic science have made it possible for us to detect them.”

Lloyd admitted raping four women and two further attempted rapes. He was jailed for life in 2006 and ordered to serve a minimum of 14 years and six months behind bars. He appealed the sentence and it was later reduced to seven years and 263 days.

Judge Alan Goldsack, who jailed Lloyd at Sheffield Crown Court, said: “Few sexual cases are more serious than these.”

But Court of Appeal judges said not enough credit had been given for the rapist’s guilty pleas.