Rapist sentenced to 9 years in prison
Rapist who attacked woman in her home is jailed.
A rapist who attacked a woman in her Manchester home has been jailed. Liam Harkin has also been jailed for sexually assaulting another woman more than a year before the rape after he left his DNA on a discarded cigarette butt. When he was arrested for the rape, a DNA sample taken whilst in custody matched that recovered from the cigarette, linking Harkin to a second sexual assault. Harkin of Central Road, Manchester, pleaded guilty to rape and sexual assault at an earlier hearing. On Wednesday 18th November 2015, he was sentenced to nine years and three months result at Manchester Crown Court. The first sexual assault took place on Saturday 5 October 2013 at about 2.50am on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury. A cigarette butt and an empty cigarette packet were recovered from the scene by Crime Scene Investigations and a DNA sample was found, which at that time did not match any previously recovered DNA but was uploaded to the database. In the early hours of 6 December 2014, a woman left a pub in the Whitworth Street area, She got into a taxi, at which point Harkin who until then did not know her, also jumped into the taxi. The woman got out of the taxi at her home in the Reddish area and was followed inside by Harkin. She fell asleep, only to be awoken by Harkin touching her. He then put his hand over her mouth, threatened her, forced himself on top of her and raped her. Terrified, the woman managed to flee from her home, screaming for help. Harkin followed her into the street, chased after her and put his hand over her mouth to stop her from getting help. It was not until one resident shouted out of their window that Harkin ran off. The police were called and the responding officer arrested Harkin nearby. While in custody, a DNA sample was taken which matched that taken from the cigarette butt in 2013 and he was also arrested for that offence. Detective Constables Joanne Walton and Chris Horsfield said: "Harkin has proven himself to be a persistent and dangerous criminal who will target lone, vulnerable women, and the streets are undoubtedly a safer place now that he is behind bars. "We would like to pay tribute to both women. Not only did they endure a terrible ordeal at Harkin's hands, but they had the courage to come forward, relive their awful experience during police interviews and waited patiently and with dignity for this day to come. Thankfully they were spared the trauma of having to go through a trial and we hope that seeing Harkin convicted of his appalling sexual crimes gives them some sense of justice. "Thanks to advances in forensic technology, police are now better equipped than ever to investigate historic crimes. Criminals leave behind DNA and fingerprints and we will find them. And we will never close cases until offenders are caught, as Harkin has now found out. "Due to some excellent teamwork between the Stockport division who responded to woman's distressed call, our forensic investigators and officers from the South Manchester division who investigated the initial sexual assault, a dangerous criminal has been caught and two women who were subjected to terrifying ordeals have seen their attacker imprisoned for a long time."