September 2009

Crimewatch rapist traced to US

A rapist traced to the United States following an appeal about an attack in south Wales on BBC One’s Crimewatch has been jailed for five years.

Alexander Burns, 49, from Glasgow, was traced to Montana after his face was broadcast on the TV programme.

Burns met a woman from Port Talbot’s Afan Valley through an internet chat room in 2005.

He claimed he was still in his 30s and, on his second visit to the woman’s home, he raped the woman

Swansea Crown Court heard that he then fled the country after failing to answer bail at Neath Police Station.

He was arrested by border police in the US and returned to the UK, where he has already spent 262 days in custody.

Burns had denied raping the woman at her home on 31 October 2005 but was found guilty by a jury at an earlier trial.

The court heard he had met his victim over the internet a short time before attacking her.

He was first arrested in the Newcastle area in 2006 but disappeared after being released on bail.