A SEX monster who raped a 10-year-old girl while she played in the woods in north east London has been jailed for life.
Laurence Malcolm Barwick, 49, was sentenced today - almost 15 years to the day after he attacked the young girl and her friend.
New DNA evidence helped the Met's Cold Case unit catch the rapist.
On May 29, 1991, the two 10-year-old girls went out to play during school half-term.
The pair walked to a den they had made in a holly tree in the woods at Forest Glade, Leytonstone, just a short walk from their home.
As the best friends were about to return home Barwick appeared at the den's entrance.
Barwick, then 33, made lewd comments to the girls and told them to sit down and undress.
He then raped one of the girls and acted indecently to the other.
After a few minutes the second girl managed to escape the den and ran home shouting for help. Barwick quickly fled the scene on a bicycle.
Despite public appeals and a number of leads, detectives were unable to trace Barwick, who was working as a lorry driver in Walthamstow and living in Brooke Road, Leytonstone.
But last year the Met's Cold Case Sapphire Unit, which investigares unsolved stranger rapes, reviewed the case.
Original exhibits and forensic evidence helped create a DNA profile which was cross-referred to the DNA database. It matched that of Barwick.
Police contacted both the victims and told them that their attacker had been identified. On December 12, last year, Barwick was arrested at his work in Lutterworth, Leicestershire.
On March 16, Barwick pleaded guilty to rape, two counts of false imprisonment and gross indecency towards a child aged under 16.
He was sent to prison for life at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court this morning.
DC Peter Walker, from the MPS Cold Case Rape Investigation Team, said: "These girls were innocently playing and Barwick took that innocence away. He made it so that parents thought twice about letting their children play in the woods.
"I would like to commend both of the victims and their families for the strength they have shown through this investigation, and hope this conviction can go some way to allowing them to put these attacks behind them.
"It has taken almost 15 years to bring him before the courts but we are committed to pursuing these offenders that have an impact not only on their victims but also on the wider community."
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