A man who raped a teenage au pair at knifepoint has been convicted 30 years after committing the crime.
Billy Roy Day, 50, was identified as the attacker by police using samples taken from the victim 30 years ago.
The 19-year-old au pair had only been in London for six weeks when she was raped in Shirehall Lane Park in Hendon by Day, who intimated he had a knife.
No significant leads were found after the attack on December 7, 1984, and the victim returned to her native country soon after.
In 1998, the samples taken from the victim and her clothing were re-examined using new technology and a DNA profile of the offender was loaded onto the police database, but no match was made at that time.
Day's DNA was uploaded onto the database in 2013 and was a match to forensic samples taken from the victim and her clothing at the time of the offence.
He was subsequently charged with rape and indecent assault after failing to answer any questions in a police interview on August 20, 2013.
Detectives from Met’s Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command’s Complex Case Team, with help from Europol, were able to track down the victim and flew to her home country to inform her of the development.
Investigating Officer, Detective Constable Gary Farrelly, said: “It was highly rewarding to be able to locate the victim and tell her that after all these years the man that had so brutally attacked her had been identified and arrested.
“I hope this case gives other victims of rape and sexual offences the confidence to report crime to the police so that we can investigate, and demonstrates that we are committed to bringing offenders to justice, whatever the passage of time.”
Day, of Uxbridge, was found guilty of rape as well as one count of buggery and one count of indecent assault on the same victim at Southwark Crown Court yesterday and will be sentenced on September 2 at the same court.
