At Ipswich Crown Court today, Phil Collins, was found guilty of the rape of a 17-year-old female in Gippeswyk Park on Sunday 14th January 1990.

Collins was arrested on 15th July 2009 after the Suffolk and Norfolk joint Major Investigation Team revisited the case in 2008. Officers progressed the investigation by using a forensic technique called ‘familial searching’, which was not available when the case was originally investigated.

This technique is used when a DNA profile from the perpetrator of a crime is obtained from the victim or a crime scene, but there are no matches against the National DNA Database.

DNA is inherited within family groups and DNA profiles of individuals who are related to each other are more likely to contain similarities than the DNA profiles of two unrelated individuals. A familial search of the National DNA Database looks for these similarities to identify a list of potential close relatives of the offender.

This list can be very considerable in number so a further filtering process is applied to prioritise those with the greatest degree of similarity to the DNA profile gained from the victim or crime scene.

Armed with this refined list, detectives can then begin to look sensitively into the family connections of those on it, with further prioritisation using known facts from the case such as the likely age of the suspect and the location of the offence.

DCI Rick Munns, from Suffolk and Norfolk’s joint Major Investigation Team, led the enquiry, and said: "This is the first occasion we have been successful in using familial DNA to solve a case like this in Suffolk. This was a horrific assault on a young woman who has spent almost two decades knowing her attacker was still free. This relatively new advance in forensic science has meant we have been able to identify a suspect who for 19 years believed he had escaped justice.

“I would like to add my sincere thanks and admiration to the victim in this case who has continued to work with us over the years and on each occasion we have reviewed this crime. Her resolve and bravery whilst working with the officers supporting her have been a major factor in bringing this matter to trial.

"It's extremely satisfying to know that we have identified the offender; this is due to our commitment to using pioneering technology in detecting unsolved crimes and the excellent work of our partners in the Forensic Science Service.

“This result sends a very clear message to anyone who thinks they have escaped justice for similar offences. With every advance in science it is only a matter of time before they too are arrested.”

Judith Cunnison, Specialist Advisor for the Forensic Science Service commented: "The Forensic Science Service (FSS) has worked closely with the Suffolk and Norfolk Joint Major Investigation Team to ensure that we make the most of the advances in DNA technologies available to us in order to progress the case. The FSS developed the familial DNA search and its use in this investigation provided police with additional intelligence information about the potential identity of the perpetrator. The speedy response allowed the DNA profile from material held over the years in the FSS archive to be matched against the perpetrator. These cases may lie dormant but they are never forgotten!”

The Gippeswyk Park attack occurred in January 1990 when the female, aged 17 at the time, was threatened by a masked male with a knife and dragged behind secluded huts in the park, before being raped.

This investigation was a cold case revisited by a small number of officers in the joint Suffolk and Norfolk Major Investigation Team (MIT). The joint MIT was set up in April 2009 and is responsible for the investigation of murders and other major crimes in the two counties.