The Electric New Paper :
100 stolen heels
British rapist who keeps victims' shoes caught 20 years later with
shocking hoard under office floor
FROM 1983 to 1986, James Lloyd terrorised the county of South
Yorkshire as the Shoe Rapist - a masked pervert who sexually
assaulted women and then stole their stilettos as keepsakes.
20 July 2006
FROM 1983 to 1986, James Lloyd terrorised the county of South
Yorkshire as the Shoe Rapist - a masked pervert who sexually
assaulted women and then stole their stilettos as keepsakes.
And he thought he had got away with his crimes.
That is, until new DNA technology led the police right to his door
this year.
Twenty years ago, Lloyd roamed the streets as a masked attacker who
would stalk women as they were walking home from pubs and clubs in
the area.
After he chose his victims, he would drag them off the street and
tie them up with pairs of stockings and tights before raping
them.
He also had a habit of stealing his victims' shoes to keep as
trophies of his conquests.
Lloyd's crime spree went unsolved for almost two decades because
when he abruptly stopped in 1986, investigators concluded that the
attacker must have been a known sex offender who had either died or
been sentenced to prison for other offences.
Lloyd also got married around that time and became the manager of a
printing firm.
He soon had a son and a daughter, and even grew to be regarded as a
respected member of his village community.
Detective Inspector Angie Wright said that Lloyd's reputation as a
manager and family man probably helped to shield him from
suspicion.
'This man was to all intents and purposes a perfectly respectable
member of society, a respected businessman with a family and a
pillar of society,' she said.
'None of his family or anyone around him suspected for one moment
that he could be the notorious shoe rapist who had terrorised women
for a number of years.'
But his dirty deeds were finally revealed because of a new
technology called familial DNA profiling.
The break in the case came when a forensic firm working with the
South Yorkshire police department tried to match the suspect's DNA
with a database of known criminals.
Though Lloyd had never been arrested, his sister's DNA had been
collected in a drunk-driving charge.
SISTER QUESTIONED
Police questioned Lloyd's sister, who acknowledged having a male
relative.
Then, Lloyd was contacted and asked to give a DNA sample.
Lloyd immediately phoned a family member, confessed and said he
planned to commit suicide. But as he was trying to hang himself in
his South Yorkshire home, the police said his son walked in and
stopped him.
Llyod was arrested and the police discovered a cache of more than
100 stilettos hidden in black bags under the floorboards of his
office.
The police revealed that some of the shoes belonged to the women
Lloyd attacked and suspect that he may have had several other
victims who have not been identified.
Also in his collection were jewellery and personal effects, as well
as hundreds of pairs of pantyhose.
Lloyd pleaded guilty in a Sheffield Crown Court to four counts of
rape and two counts of attempted rape.
As he was led from the courtroom, one of his victims shouted out
'Rot in hell!', reported The Times.
A judge has deferred sentencing in the case, pending the completion
of psychiatric tests. - AP.