Life term for park rapist

3:57pm Thursday 5th October 2006

A Leyland man is facing life behind bars after pleading guilty to a savage sex attack on a young woman 11 years ago in Witton Park, Blackburn.

Graham Darbyshire's guilty plea to two charges of rape and one of indecent assault have finally brought one of Lancashire police's most high profile manhunts to a close.

And his conviction, due to advances in DNA technology, has finally given his victim the reassurance that he will not strike again.

Supt Neil Smith, who helped lead the original inquiry, said: "I am really pleased the investigation has come to successful conclusion and the victim now has some closure, knowing that the person who changed her life has been brought to justice.

"He is a really dangerous individual who committed a horrific attack, probably the worst I have dealt with in 30 years in the police."

The 53-year-old lorry driver, who had a previous conviction for rape in 1984, pounced on his victim, a 22-year-old Blackburn woman, as she walked her dog through the Blackburn wood on October 8, 2005.

He dragged the terrified woman into bushes close to the footpath between Killiards Lane picnic area and Witton Park, before forcing her to strip naked and tying her hands behind her back.

Darbyshire, of Elm Grove, Cuerden, Leyland, then subjected his victim to a horrific 90-minute sex ordeal before tying the woman's feet together with shoelaces and placing her jeans over her face. He told her to wait ten minutes as he ran off.

The distraught woman was found in a hysterical condition by two passers by.

Appearing before Manchester Crown Court yesterday, Darbyshire, also pleaded guilty to a similar attack in Boothstown, Greater Manchester, where he indecently assaulted another female dog walker in July 1993.

Sentencing on Darbyshire will take place in December.

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