Rapist caught after 30 years

Andrew Longmire

A SERIAL sex offender from Oldham who raped a young mother in Sheffield almost 30 years ago has been snared by his DNA.

Andrew Longmire (54) was jailed for life in 1988 for 11 rapes, three attempted rapes and a range of other offences.

But he was never linked to the Sheffield rape until South Yorkshire Police’s cold-case review team reopened the files earlier this year.

The victim and her daughter — who was only three at the time of the rape and hid behind a sofa during the attack — were at Sheffield Crown Court to watch Longmire appear by videolink from Whitemoor maximum security prison in Cambridgeshire.

Judge Alan Goldsack QC sentenced Longmire, who admitted the rape, to life with a minimum tariff of two years.

The court heard that the victim was aged 26 and married when the attack took place on September 7, 1981.

Longmire broke into her home with an industrial screwdriver and raped her in the living room.

Semen samples were taken from the victim’s jeans but the technology to extract DNA from them has only been developed in the years since the offence was committed.