Rapist trapped by DNA on son's craft knife

A VIOLENT rapist who attacked a university student 12 year ago has been jailed for life after being snared by DNA on his son’s school craft knife.

Craft knife Similar to the one used in the attack Craft knife: Similar to the one used in the attack

Jobless Steven Sellars, 42, had erupted in fury after finding the knife in the 15-year-old boy’s bag.[>

He returned it to the school demanding an explanation from the headmaster as to why they had let him take the implement home.[>

But staff called police after Sellars arrived brandishing the blade and he was arrested by officers armed with stun guns.[>

Police took a routine DNA sample which provided a match to an unsolved attack on a York University student.[>

Dad-of-three Sellars had previously been caged on three separate occasions for a string of sex attacks. But he thought he had escaped justice for the vicious rape at woods near the university campus in April 1996 until he returned the knife to the school.[>

Judge Stephen Ashurst told him at York Crown Court: “You plainly targeted and waited for a lone woman and attacked her. She feared she was going to be killed.[>

“For 12 years your victim has had to wonder if her attacker is still at large and if he will ever face justice. You have devastated her life and that is a wicked thing to do. You are a complex, unpredictable and dangerous man.”[>

Prosecuting, David Brooke revealed the young student was walking home alone at 11.15pm when she was seized and punched by Sellars.[>

Mr Brooke said: “He grabbed her hair and dragged her towards woodland. He punched her in the throat, forced her head down and placed his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming. She was terrified, and he told her ‘keep quiet and I won’t kill you’.”[>

Sellars only stopped when people living nearby heard the girl’s screams and rushed to the scene.[>

He had committed his first attack in 1985, when aged 20 he had assaulted two schoolgirls.[>

He was jailed for two years, but on New Year’s Eve 1987 he assaulted a woman and raped another just minutes later.[>

He was given a total of seven years for these attacks, but in 1993 was convicted of a sexual offence against a child and imprisoned for a further three years. He committed his final offence just months after being released.[>

Mr Brooke added that when officers searched his home last December, they found he had been scouring the internet for videos relating to rape fantasies and forced sex.[>

Ponytailed Sellars shook his head as he was sentenced, while friends of the victim cheered. He will serve a minimum of four years before he is considered for parole.[>

Sellars married his girlfriend Sharon shortly after the attack and she has vowed to stand by him. The unemployed 34-year-old, who is on benefits, wrote a letter to the judge pleading for leniency.[>

She feared she was going to be killed

Judge Stephen Ashurst

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?