Two brothers have been jailed for 10 years after they abducted, raped and abandoned a 17-year-old Oxfordshire girl.

The conviction of Lee Ainsby, 32, of Brackley Road, Croughton, Northamptonshire, and Stephen Ainsby, 34, of Glamis Place, Banbury, shows how DNA evidence is increasingly being used to catch criminals.

As reported in the late edition of yesterday's (Friday) Oxford Mail, the brothers had remained at liberty for 10 years while their victim had to live with the psychological effects of her horrific ordeal.

When Stephen Ainsby was arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour in 2003 his DNA was found to match that found on the rape victim's body.

His sample was used to trace his brother, who admitted kidnapping and raping the girl as she walked along Warwick Road, Banbury, on June 23, 1995.

Yesterday, both men were both jailed at Oxford Crown Court for 10 years for rape and five years for kidnap, the sentences to run concurrently.

The victim was walking home after a night out with friends when she was abducted by the brothers. They drove her to a secluded spot in Warwickshire, threatened to kill her and repeatedly raped her.

The men left her semi-naked at the scene and drove off. She ran through the countryside over gates and through hedges until she reached Ladbroke, near Southam, where she knocked on the door of a house and was taken in by a couple who called the police.

Fiona Horlick, prosecuting, said it was a brutal, heartless attack and added: "The defendants have lived as free men for 10 years while the victim and her family's life was shattered."

The conviction is a victory for DNA evidence, which is now taken from everyone who is charged with a criminal offence, and in certain cases, people who are arrested.

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "If someone is arrested but not charged, we have to have certain criteria to take a DNA sample.

"We would need to be clear that DNA evidence would prove or disprove someone had committed an offence, we need the co-operation of the suspect and failing that the authority of an inspector."

When DNA samples are taken they are placed on a national police database.

He said: "The techniques we use are progressing all the time, so that scientists are able to take DNA samples from much smaller traces.

"Police officers seize items and put them through our scenes of crime officers who can decide whether there is potential for getting DNA samples from an article or object, then send it off to the labs to be put through the system."