March 2005 DNA-trapped sex attacker jailed A sex attacker who assaulted a 14-year-old at knifepoint in 1992 has been jailed for seven years after being trapped by advances in DNA technology. Andrew Everton, 37, of no fixed address, also bludgeoned the girl with a piece of wood in Dudley town centre in the Black Country. He admitted indecent assault, wounding and robbery at an earlier hearing. Everton was charged under Operation Advance, a nationwide scheme by police and the Forensic Science Service. He was arrested in August last year after samples from the crime scene were re-examined as part of a national drive to solve so-called “cold cases”. Birmingham Crown Court heard that Everton committed the offence, in which he held a Stanley knife to his victim’s face, during a six-month crime spree spanning 1992 and 1993. Sybil Thomas, prosecuting, said the defendant was jailed for eight years in 1994 at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court for raping a prostitute at gunpoint. He later admitted an horrific campaign of more than 160 offences of burglary and robbery. But Everton was never linked to the attack on the teenager, which happened in December 1992. ‘Off rails’ Outlining the details of the offence, Ms Thomas told the court how the terrified victim was dragged into an alleyway before being partially stripped and beaten on waste ground. The victim, now 26, was praised by Judge Robert Orme for her bravery in attending court to see her assailant jailed. Ordering Everton to register as a sex offender for life, the judge said: “These were quite appalling offences. “The victim was only 14 years old and she was stalked and seized by you that on that evening.” Rod Henderson, defending, had urged the court not to order his client to serve any further time in custody. He pointed out the indecent assault was committed during a period when the labourer “went off the rails” while using drugs.