A RAPE who escaped justice for two years after cops overlooked him during a DNA swab operation has now been convicted of child molestation.
Police hunting the attacker of an 18-year-old girl in 2009 were unable to take a sample from Michael Higgins.
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They took more than 700 swabs during the inquest but stopped within half a mile of his home in Warminster, Wilts.
He was eventually caught in April 2011 after his son was arrested for a minor misdemeanor and routinely wiped and a family match found.
The master builder was sentenced to 6½ years in prison in November 2011 for rape.
He has now been convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in 2020.
On the witness stand at St Albans Crown Court, Higgins told his solicitor Nathalie Carter that he was known as Mucky, which was an old working name given to him as a Hod bearer.
When cross-examined by prosecutor Laura Blackband, he said: “I don’t know where the allegations came from. I don’t know why she made that up.”
Higgins, 57, now from Chesham, Bucks, will be sentenced at Swindon Crown Court in June.
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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17913171/rapist-convicted-of-child-abuse/ Rapist who escaped justice for two years convicted of abusing 10-year-old girl