Yorkshire shoe fetish rapist given life sentence

LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) A serial rapist tracked down by his DNA 20 years after his attacks on women in South Yorkshire in the 1980s was sentenced to life imprisonment today.

James Lloyd attacked his victims late at night, dragging them off the street and tying them up with tights or stockings before sexually assaulting them.

Before leaving his victims Lloyd, 50, took their shoes and kept them as trophies.

When police searched Lloyd's work premises they found a cache of 100 pairs of stiletto shoes, some identified as belonging to his victims.

He had pleaded guilty to four rapes and two attempted rapes between 1983 and 1986 on women aged 18 to 53 at an earlier hearing in July and was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday.

He will have to serve a minimum of 14 and a half years before he is eligible for parole.

Lloyd was only discovered after police reopened their search for the ''Dearne Valley Shoe Rapist'', named after the South Yorkshire area where the attacks took place.

Forensic scientists used a pioneering technique known as familial searching to identify Lloyd after DNA from his sister, who had given a sample after drink-driving offence, matched that found on the victims.

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Walker said after the sentencing he believed there could be other victims yet to come forward, saying that Lloyd may have attacked more than 10 women in total.

Relatives of two of Lloyd's victims said he had hidden behind a ''facade of respectability'' and had shown ''no remorse'' for his crimes.

''James Desmond Lloyd is a cowardly individual who fully deserves to serve a long custodial sentence dwelling upon the crimes he committed,'' they said in a statement.

REUTERS AB PM2349