Detective who helped bring Rhubarb Bridge rapist to justice says 'good old fashioned police work' helped take dangerous offender off the streets

A detective who helped bring a rapist who attacked two strangers in Peterborough to justice has said the case is one she will never forget.

Awais Rehman was jailed for more than six years at Cambridge Crown Court on Tuesday (October 25), after raping one woman and sexually assaulting and robbing another in 2017 when he was just 15. Judge Bridge, sentencing, said Rehman posed ‘a significant risk to women’ as he passed sentence.

Rehman was caught by officers after a lengthy campaign, which saw e-fits made up and DNA taken from dozens of teenagers. Finally, a DNA sample from a shirt worn by one of Rehman’s victims during the attack was able to link the rapist to his crimes. The investigation was featured in an episode of Channel 4’s 24 Hours in Police Custody.

It was good old fashioned police work that led us to him

Following yesterday’s sentence, DC Denise Brown, who investigated, together with Superintendent Adam Gallop and Detective Inspector Gordon Blair, said: “This is a case I will personally never forget and highlights our sheer determination to bring offenders like Rehman to justice.

“It took us nine months to track him down; we issued media appeals and an e-fit image but it was good old fashioned police work that led us to him in the end after we knocked on his door and took his DNA, which linked him forensically to these horrific sex offences.”

While DC Brown said she would never forget the case, the impact of the offences on Rehman’s victims will continue.

What the victims went through will live with them much longer than a six-year prison sentence

DC Brown said: “The sexual assault victim feels what happened has completely changed her life; she never goes out alone, has regular panic attacks and feels like her ordeal has never ended.

“The rape victim continues to live in fear and has considered taking her own life due to the psychological impact of what happened.

“Many will remember she took part in 24 Hours in Police Custody and gave a first-hand account of the impact it had on her. I hope her story inspires others to contact us if they are victims of similar offences.

“When I called her to say we had charged someone for her case, she said it was one of the happiest days of her life; for me that really captures why we became officers - to make a positive difference when the public have been through truly horrendous experiences.

“I think the sentencing reflects the seriousness of the offence, but what the victims went through will live with them much longer than a six-year prison sentence and today it’s them that my thoughts are with.

“We take all offences of rape and sexual assault extremely seriously and as highlighted in this case, will do all we can to bring offenders to justice.”

Rehman (20), previously of Watergall, Bretton, was jailed for six years and two months after pleading guilty to one count of rape, two counts of sexual assault, one count of threatening someone with a knife and one count of robbery.