Get the biggest stories sent straight to your inbox Sign up for regular updates and breaking news from WalesOnline Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A pensioner convicted of raping a young woman as she walked home alone has been jailed for 11 years.

Malcolm Donaldson, 74, of Ffordd Eryri in Caernarfon, supported by his wife Eluned, insisted that he was at home in bed many miles away at the time of the rape which took place in a field at Prestatyn.

An earlier trial in February heard that the victim could not remember leaving a pub in Prestatyn – her next recollection was waking up covered in mud in a field.

The victim did not remember attack but forensic tests found the woman had been raped and DNA evidence linked Donaldson to the woman.

It a was one in a billion chance that the DNA belonged to anyone else.

Malcolm Donaldson arriving at Mold Crown Court in February

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

Mr Justice Wyn Williams, sentencing him at Mold Crown Court, told him that he had attacked a vulnerable young woman as she walked alone in Prestatyn, between her own home and that of her boyfriend.

“It must be the case that you had planned to commit such a crime,” the judge told him.

“The offence occurred in Prestatyn whereas your family home is in Caernarfon.

“While I don’t suggest that you were in Prestatyn with intent to rape her personally, it must be the case that you were there on the lookout for a victim such as her.

“You had this crime very much in mind, in my judgement,” the judge told Donaldson, who showed no emotion in the dock as he was sentenced.

The judge said that the description of Donaldson, a former trolley collector at Morrison’s supermarket in Caernarfon, as a “predator” was appropriate for such an awful offence.

(Image: Hadyn Iball)

It was obvious that it had a profound effect on the victim, the judge said.

She had suffered psychological harm as a result of the rape.

The victim was particularly vulnerable and there must have been a significant degree of planning, he said.

Mr Justice Wyn Williams said he did regard Donaldson as a dangerous offender who posed a significant risk of harm to the public.

But in view of his age and the length of the determinate sentence he would impose, he had decided not to impose an extended sentence.

The victim could not remember anything that happened from the time she had been in a pub.

Simon Rogers, defending, said there was no evidence that Donaldson had been in the pub that night.

The judge said he did not take the view that the defendant had particularly targeted the victim, but added: “I am going to find that he was targeting vulnerable young women.”

The victim read her own victim impact statement from behind a screen at the court hearing in which she revealed that the effect upon her had been so great that she had tried to kill herself.