DNA blunder sex attacker gets life

A serial sex attacker who remained at large for four years due to a police DNA blunder, has been jailed for life.

Six of the offences committed by welder Mark Campbell, 38, from Chichester, West Sussex, including two rapes, were committed after police failed to act on a DNA sample taken from him during a hunt for a peeping Tom.

Campbell was convicted at Chichester Crown Court of a catalogue of crimes against girls and young women.

They included four counts of indecent assault, two counts of false imprisonment, three counts of rape, one count of attempted indecent assault, one count of sexual assault and two counts of burglary.

Sussex Police issued an apology for the blunder and said a senior police officer and a member of police staff had received "formal words of advice".

Assistant Chief Constable Jeremy Paine added: "There are no excuses. Having taken this particular sample, we didn't send it off for processing. That had consequences in that Campbell was at large for four years longer than he should have been."

He added: "It should not have happened and we are very sorry that it did. We have done everything we can to learn the lessons so that nothing like it can happen again."

Campbell preyed on vulnerable girls and young women either in their homes or in isolated outdoor spots, mainly in the Bognor Regis and Chichester areas.

He first struck in February 1998 when he indecently assaulted a 27-year-old woman in Bognor after breaking into her home while her three young children slept upstairs.

He also falsely imprisoned a girl of 12 as she walked home from school but was found not guilty of indecently assaulting her after a four-week trial.

In addition, he indecently assaulted a 15-year-old girl as she walked to a local shop to buy nappies for her baby.

In harrowing testimony, the 12-year-old victim, now aged 19, described how she remains deeply traumatised. She said: "If I have a good time, I totally forget about it but sometimes it comes back to me and scares me."

In addition, jurors heard Campbell indecently assaulted an Italian student during a half-hour ordeal in February 2000, committed the same offence on a student aged 21 in her bedroom, and falsely imprisoned a woman after sneaking into her room.

Campbell's other offences included the rape of a 21-year-old hotel worker at her workplace, an attempted indecent assault on a Czech au pair, and burglaries of two students, but he was cleared of the sexual assault of one of them and a sex attack on a girl of 16 in her home.

Finally, in August 2004, with his pattern of offending increasing in severity and frequency, he raped a 15-year-old girl whom he befriended.

Judge William Wood QC said Campbell would have to serve at least ten years before he becomes eligible for parole.

The judge said he had created a sense of anxiety among the community through his prolonged offending.

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