A taxi driver who wrestled a chamber maid to the ground in Liphook and forced her to perform a sex act on him, was caught 16 years later when police traced him by his DNA.

Robert Sargent, who wore women's underwear during the attack, was starting a four-year jail sentence after he admitted assaulting the 18-year-old woman at Liphook in 1987.

He had been driving along the old A3 on the outskirts of the village at 10-30 pm when he spotted the young woman walking home following a shift at a nearby hotel, a court heard.

Sargent, then 39, pulled into a layby ahead of the woman near the Iron Bridge, close to Liphook golf course, and lay in wait.

As she walked past his car he jumped out and grabbed her before dragging the terrified teenager through bushes at the roadside.

On wasteland, he then pinned her to the ground before assaulting her.

Prosecutor Margaret Currie said: "She was dragged and then frogmarched on to wasteland. He told her that if she screamed he would break her neck and then he indecently assaulted her.

"After the attack he became a completely different character. He helped her up and apologised and said not to tell the police."

Winchester Crown Court heard that the woman later reported her ordeal to police but they were unable to trace her attacker.

It was not until 2002 that Sargent, now 54, was arrested and cautioned for possessing cannabis.

As a matter of routine police took finger prints and a DNA sample. When fed into a computer system with records of unsolved crimes, this sample provided a perfect match with DNA taken from the scene in Liphook.

The court heard that the chances of the DNA belonging to anyone else were one in a billion.

Officers then went to the taxi driver's home in Horley, Surrey, and arrested him for the indecent assault.

When Sargent was interviewed about the attack he made a full confession and pleaded guilty to indecent assault when he appeared at court.

The hearing was told that the father of two had previous convictions for indecent exposure.

Judge Tom Longbotham jailed him for four years, saying that Sargent was still a danger to women. He was also placed on the sex offenders' register.

The judge told Sargent: "You escaped detection for so many years. However, you have been assessed as being at high risk of committing such offences again and you must have a custodial sentence."

After the case, Sargent's victim, who lives in Manchester, described her ordeal.

The single mother, who is now 34, said: "When he said he was going to break my neck, that was the point where I stopped fighting and let it happen.

"It was all about self-preservation at that point.

"I had literally only just turned 18. I was very much still a teenager but I got hurled into adulthood with one hell of a kick.

"If I did not do what he said, he could have killed me. I felt he was capable of doing it.

"He could have snapped my neck and just walked away."

Talking to The Herald about the painstaking work that went into tracking down Sargent, Detective Sergeant Doug Utting said: "We are very pleased with the result."

Mr Utting, who is part of Hampshire's main crime team, said it was not until years after the Liphook attack, when Sargent was given a routine finger print and DNA sample after being arrested for a completely unrelated crime, that a computer search of unsolved cases revealed his identity.

The investigations, said Mr Utting, were part of a wider operation called "Operation Alveston".

Ds Utting said that in 1999, Hampshire Police decided to search to see what could be done about reviewing cases where DNA evidence was established.

"Although the paperwork for these cases had quite often disappeared, forensic science is constantly changing. The older cases tend to be the more difficult ones but DNA is good news. This reflects the determination of the Hampshire force not to close these cases until every line of enquiry has been exhausted," he said.