Man convicted of historic rape
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by Paul Hooper
A driving instructor has been found
guilty this afternoon of raping a woman 26 years ago.
Martin Eke, 46, thought he had
escaped justice for his stranger rape attack on Jacqui
Spriddell in 1986.
After the rape, he fled Folkestone where he had
worked as a shoe shop manager.
But Jacqui - who was 21 at the time -
condemned him in a statement from beyond the grave.
A judge at Canterbury Crown Court ruled
her words could be read to the jury - even though she died from
renal failure 11 years ago.
They were enough to convince the jury
that Eke, of Douglas Road,
Tonbridge, carried out the rape on wasteland near
Folkestone railway station.
The case was never solved and it was
only in 2010 that Kent Police's cold case police officers looked into
the attack again.
By then, they had Eke's DNA after he
was arrested in 2005 for an attack on a lover when he was
given a police caution.
That matched DNA taken from Jacqui's
clothed, which had been
stored since 1986.
Eke, (pictured above. Picture: Mike
Gunnill) who denied the charge, claimed he had
met a woman on the way home one evening and the two had consensual
sex.
The jury rejected his claim. Eke will
be sentenced tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 25 2012
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