A MAN arrested in Oxford for a "monstrous" rape on an 82-year-old woman 23 years ago has been jailed after police tracked him down using DNA evidence.

Mark Davis, 49, broke into the home of a widow in Bristol, bound and gagged her, then raped her in her bed, Bristol Crown Court heard yesterday.

The woman, who had lived on her own since her husband died in 1963, died in 1989, knowing her attacker had not been caught.

Detectives from Avon and Somerset Police recently re-investigated the rape and found DNA matching Davis's profile on national database.

Officers traced the rapist to Oxford, and arrested him in the city in April 2005. He pleaded guilty to the attack, which happened in the early hours of April 26 1983.

Jailing Mr Davis for nine years, Judge Tom Crowther said it was "one of the most monstrous cases of rape" he had known.

He said: "You entered into the bedroom of an essentially bed-ridden and utterly respectable lady in her early 80s.

"I don't have to repeat the indignities to which you subjected her."

In a statement, the woman's family said: "We are happy that this man has now been caught and sentenced to time in jail for this crime.

"It shows that through DNA, if you have done the crime, you will do the time, it will catch up with you.

"What he did was disgusting, to attack a defenceless, elderly woman in her home - she didn't stand a chance."

Avon and Somerset Police said when the case was reopened, forensic scientists went back through carefully retained material from the time of the offence, and located a microscope slide containing minute traces of material.

They obtained Davis's DNA profile using the latest DNA technology.