A violent child rapist was caught after a passing police officer noticed his distinctive walk.
Shane Nash, aged 39, was walking with two friends along Muirfield Road, Top Valley, on 31 January when he was spotted by an officer travelling in a marked patrol car.
Two days earlier he had stalked the teenage victim after she had dropped a friend off at a bus stop. He followed her into an alleyway before dragging her into nearby bushes
Nash put tape around her mouth so tightly she could hardly breathe. She was screaming and he told her: “Be quiet or I’ll stab you.”
He pulled her trousers down and tied her wrists together, saying: “I bet you wish you had never left your friend.”
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said it had “changed my life forever”, with a judge describing the rape as “one of the gravest offences that anyone could commit”.
She told him she wouldn’t say anything if he let her go and 39-year-old Nash replied: “That’s what they all say.”
She was crying and hysterical throughout the ordeal. Nash used a condom, but the court heard she had to wait weeks to get negative HIV results.
Parts of the attack were captured on CCTV and footage of the attacker was later shared in a high-profile media appeal.
After viewing the footage the previous day, the officer’s eye was immediately drawn to Nash’s distinctive walking style and his high, square shoulders.
Noticing that his clothing was also similar to that of the suspect, she and her colleague immediately turned around and asked Nash to stop.
It soon became clear that he was also wearing the same clothes and distinctive grey trainers he was wearing at the time of the attack
Further damming evidence was found when officers searched his bag and uncovered a black beanie hat and red sleeping bag referred to by the victim.
Although a knife, latex gloves and a packet of Viagra were found nearby in the Top Valley area, they couldn’t be linked to Nash.
He has 21 convictions for 40 offences between 1999 and 2022, including a four-year prison term for robbing a woman in 2015 with similar features to this case.
Nash, formerly of Boniface Gardens, Bestwood, was arrested on suspicion of rape but strenuously denied the allegations against him – even when confronted with irrefutable DNA evidence linking him to the crime.
He kept up this pretence until his second court appearance in March , when he finally pleaded guilty to one count of rape and one of attempted rape.
Appearing for sentence today he was jailed for life and will serve a minimum of 15 years. He was also added to the sex offenders’ register for life.
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