Rapist, 67, jailed 40 years after despicable sexual attack on dog walker after DNA caught

A rapist has been jailed for 12 years after a DNA hack identified him as the perpetrator of the gruesome attack on a young woman walking her dog in August 1980.

Victim Roland Long has revealed she was traumatized after her attacker was arrested after 40 years and said she ‘wants him to suffer’ after recounting how rape took her life down.

Long, 67, was arrested when police found his DNA on his victim’s clothing in 2019, after believing for 39 years that he had fled justice.

The “protracted attack” left its victim, then a woman in her twenties, afraid to leave home for five years – as Evil Long started a new life 60 miles away after fleeing the area.

Police have been baffled by the issue for four decades after the woman was raped in a lane behind Elm Street in Roath, Cardiff on a summer evening in 1980.

It was later dubbed “The Nightmare of Elm Street” by locals as a major police investigation failed to track down the rapist.

Advances in forensic techniques have opened new lines of investigation allowing for another case review in 2019.

DNA tests were carried out on the victim’s clothing which led to Long, who was living 60 miles away in Nailsea, Somerset at the time.

Once identified, records show he had a history of sexual assaults.

ITV’s cold case detectives heard how the DNA hack led to his arrest – and how the police broke the news to the woman that her nightmare was over.

She said: I remember all the details. I was afraid to go out for the first five years, afraid to go out at night.

“After that happened, I was just a nervous wreck you know, and I drank way too much, and that’s what led to it.

It was just an attempt to forget. Once you start doing things like that, you can’t stop.

I went a little off the rails, I know it was a long time ago, the hurt and all was gone.

“At the time it was much worse, you’re in more pain, but over the years it fades a little bit, and it’s still in your head, but you’re learning to live with it.”

On the summer evening of August 17, 1980, the woman was walking her dog while carrying a crate when Long approached her.

He offers her to carry the box, but when she declines his offer, he pursues and pushes her to the ground on Partridge Road.

The court heard he told the woman “no one says no to me” when he attacked her.

The rape, which was described as a “protracted” assault that lasted 10 minutes, left her terrified and afraid for her life.

She said: ‘I was absolutely shocked when they told me they had found the guy.

I actually felt relieved, something I never thought would happen, that he would be caught.

I was completely shocked. I’m a little shaken up by all these different feelings, it’s up to you too.

“If he can do it to one person, he can do it again, he just needs to be locked up, he should throw away the key.”

He was imprisoned a long time ago for 12 years at Newport Crown Court.

He initially pleaded guilty, but later pleaded not guilty.

Detective Gina Hargreaves was one of the officers who worked on the case and brought Long to justice.

She told the show: ‘I think he was very traumatized. Forty years down the line, I don’t think he thought we would knock him down and arrest him for a crime that happened then.

I think it’s cool, it sends a message to people that it doesn’t matter when you committed this crime, don’t think you got away with it.

Science, technology, and the way we investigate our crimes are changing all the time, and to be able to get a suspect, it’s phenomenal.