A VIOLENT sex attacker who escaped justice for 14 years is finally behind bars.

And police say the case of Vincent Dally could be followed by others as they review so called cold cases on a daily basis.

He was jailed for 21 months at Bristol Crown Court yesterday, after DNA profiling advances allowed Avon and Somerset police to track down the 29-year-old from Hartcliffe.

When Dally, pictured, was 15, he subjected a 39-year-old woman to a terrifying ordeal as he beat and tried to rape her on grassland.

In August, the father of two, of Bowring Close, admitted attempted rape.

Prosecuting, William Hunter said on November 12, 1995, the victim was walking along Gatehouse Avenue, on her way to a friend's house.

She saw a man in a car and heard a door slam before sensing someone was behind her.

By the time she had turned on to Cornleaze Street, the gap had been closed and the court heard Dally grabbed her from behind, clamping his hand around her mouth.

He picked her up and she tried to fight him off with her open umbrella. Dally then dragged her by her hair on to nearby grassland, punched her in the face and after she shouted for help he said: "If you don't shut up, I will kill you."

He pushed her to the ground.

Mr Hunter said: "She felt a second blow to her face, she was scared, she thought she was going to be killed."

The asthmatic woman had problems breathing as the horrific sex attack took place. Dally ended it by kicking her twice in the head before running off.

DNA samples were taken at the time, but it was not until a detailed profile of the attacker was made last year as part of the national Operation Advance 3, that police could find out who he was.

A common assault check conviction in 2006 had put Dally on the DNA database and on January 15 this year police had all the evidence they needed to arrest him at his home.

The chances of the DNA match belonging to anyone else were a billion to one.

In sentencing Dally, Judge David Ticehurst took into account that he was only 15 at the time of the attack but also weighed up the "devastating" affect the attempted rape had had on the victim, who didn't realise she lived near her attacker.

As previously reported, in a statement she said: "It was a shock after all this time, I didn't think they would ever get him.

"It's the emotional side of the attack that I find the most difficult to deal with. I do not sleep properly at all. It's the violence that I cannot get out of my head.

"Now that he has been convicted I hope I will feel safe and will begin to start afresh and get on with my life. I really hope that I will be able to do that. I've got to try."

After the sentencing DCI Mike Carter, who leads the Major Crime Review Team, said: "What we have to look at with this sentence is that this man has never been in prison before and tomorrow morning he is going to wake up behind bars.

"It is going to be a shock to the system and regardless of the length, we've got to be satisfied with a custodial sentence.

"We're looking at cases every day and we're always looking for opportunities to bring defendants to justice and we hope there will be more in the near future.

"What we want to do is give past victims and future victims of sexual offences the reassurance and confidence to come forward and give statements."

Mitigating, Adam Vaitilingam said: "He was a child when he committed the offence." He said he had a "very difficult background" and because of his heavy alcohol and drug use at the time, he cannot remember what he did.

The court heard Dally has a four-year-old and a baby with his partner, and was a forklift driver for three years before giving up his job to spend more time with his family, as he awaited his inevitable custodial sentence.

Dally will be on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.

His case was one of 14,000 sex crimes from between 1980 and 1998 that the Home Office has spent £1.75 million on trying to solve through the latest DNA profiling. Operation Advance has so far helped convict 48 people.