How advances in forensic science snared shoe rapist who terrorised South Yorkshire women

We take a look back at how the sex attacker’s past finally caught up with him and his victims saw him locked up for his heinous crimes.

It was 21 years ago when South Yorkshire Police’s ‘cold case review team’ began looking at a case which had troubled them for years – the rapes of numerous women targeted as they made their way home after nights out in the Dearne Valley between 1983 and 1986.

James Lloyd, who was 26 when he started offending, tended to accost lone women as they made their way home from nights out, tie them up with their stockings and rape them. And in a sick twist, he used to steal their shoes, stockings or jewellery as a ‘trophy’ of his sex attacks.

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 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 and he 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 he 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.