A Corkman (39) has been jailed for 12 years by the Central Criminal Court for attempting to rape a woman in 1988 after he broke into her home while she was sleeping.
Conor Downey of West Douglas, Cork was convicted of the attempted rape of the Cork woman in November last by a jury that also found him guilty of indecently assaulting her on the same occasion on October 15th, 1988.
Previously, Downey was jailed in 1993 in London for the manslaughter in March 1988 of a 26-year-old Donegal woman he had been sharing a house with.
Supt Calnan said gardai arrested him for the attempted rape in May 2001, 11 years after the crime.
The arrest was made on the strength of the matching DNA which showed that there was a chance of only one in a thousand-million of anyone else with the same DNA profile having attempted to rape the woman.
Supt Calnan said Downey had also been convicted in February last of assaulting the doctor who had collected the blood samples from him. He arrived at the doctor's surgery with a knife while he was examining a patient and threatened to use the knife on him.
"I am in the Central Criminal Court because of you," he said to the doctor before holding a knife to his stomach, Supt Calnan told the court.
An application during the trial by Downey's counsel, Mr Ciaran O'Loughlin SC, to exclude the DNA evidence was rejected by Mr Justice O'Higgins.
Mr Justice O'Higgins suspended the last 12 months of Downey's sentence.