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BACKGROUND: CSI fan, 89, trapped Leeds rapist VIDEO
AFTER watching TV's CSI forensic crime series an 89-year-old double rape victim deliberatly scratched her attacker's face to get his DNA under her fingernails to help police catch him.
The vital DNA from his skin and his abandoned condoms together with compelling detective work, enabled police to identify and charge pub doorman Mauro Lopes,31, just 38 hours after the horriific attack.
Det Supt Steve Payne of the West Yorkshire Pollice Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, believes the dangerous Angolan almost targeted and possibly planned the ghastly sex assault. He lived just a floor above his victim and could observe her movements.
CSI fan, 89, trapped Leeds rapist - CLICK FOR COURT STORY
When the pensioner answered a knock at her flat in Leeds, shortly before 6am on Saturday March 14, she assumed it was a friendly neighbour who regularly "posted" her newspaper through the letterbox calling to have a chat.
But she was confronted by the 19-stone Angolan who flashed his photographic doorman security pass. He asked to see her son and when she denied she had one, Lopes claimed he wanted to see her husband. But before the widow could protest further, he carried her bodily to the bedroom and threw her on the bed.
Forcing his black hat and a pillow over her face he mercilously raped her twice, using different condoms in each revolting act.
After making an amazingly calm 999 call, the woman was treated in hospital for injuries suffered in the attack and was detained several days. Immediately she told police "I have been watching CSI so I scratched his face so you could get DNA from my fingernails."
Initially Det Supt Payne's team focused on local CCTV footage and house-to-house inquiries. The victim's flat was subjected to a detailed forensic examination and the area outside the flats was sealed off and searched inch by inch. A cap similar to the attacker's and a number of condoms were recovered.
Suspicion focused on Lopes relatively soon.
He told police the night before the attack he worked at the Arc pub in North Lane, Headingley, and went for a drink before returning home at 3am.
Yet examination of CCTV footage found no sign of him at that time. But at 5.37am a back view of a figure in black - believed to be Lopes - was filmed entering the lift and going to the floor where the widow lived. Significantly Lopes lived on th floor above.
The friend "posting" the victim's newspaper was filmed leaving, but the figure in black was not. It was concluded the attacker either on the stairwell or in a flat waiting to attack.
Becoming suspicious, early on the Saturday evening detectives attempted to contact Lopes. His employers confirmed he had worked the Friday night, but had telephoned in sick, unable to work that evening.
At the scene, Det Supt Payne fearing Lopes had vanished, decided to call at his flat with a colleague at 8.30pm
The experienced detective "was not happy" with Lopes' demeanour and there were tell tale scratches on his face.
"He was very nervous and his clothing fitted the description of the attacker's," said Det Supt Payne. This coupled with other inconsistencies about his movements led to his arrest on suspicion of rape.
As forensic officers fast tracked tests on materials obtained from the victim's fingernails and abandoned condons, Lopes denied the rapes. He claimed to have been wearing a particular jacket the night of the attack, but CCTV footage showed him wearing one identical to that described by rapist's victiim.
Within hours scientists identified both the pensioner's DNA and her attacker's on condoms found abandoned beneath Lopes's window and on the victiims fingernail scrapings. A national DNA database check found a match - it belonged to Mauro Patrice Quintino Lopes registered after a driving offence.
The evidence was conclusive and finally Lopes admitted the shocking rapes. His only explanation being desperate for sex after arguing with a girl friend. Detectives found no such a girl friend.
Det Supt Payne added: "I think he knew there was an elderly and vulnerable lady living there alone. He went there to check she was alone and then carried out a vicious assault. It was a cold blooded attack that could have had fatal consequences."
Thankfully his victim has had a lot of support from friends and has made a good recovery. She now lives elsewhere in sheltered accommodation.
Lopes is an apparently intelligent, but very dangerous man. He came to the UK from Angola on a false passport on March 20 2002. He claimed he was forced to use a bogus passport to escape Angola and was granted asylum and given indefinite leave to stay.
He was initially found a hostel in London before moving to another hostel in Bramley, Leeds. After a further hostel he became a tenant at the flats. How he supported himself before using his physique to gain him a job as a nightscene security worker is not clear.
In 2007 he began a university Business Studies course and last year unsuccessfully applied for British nationality. It is believed he has family in Britain, but they are not known and he lived alone.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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