An ex-police officer who blackmailed a woman into sex 40 years ago when she couldn’t pay fine has been jailed in what is believed to be Britain's oldest cold case breakthrough.

David Lomax, 83, was serving as a warrant officer with West Yorkshire Police when he visited the woman at her home in Leeds in October 1978.

Leeds Crown Court heard how, when it became clear that the woman did not have sufficient funds to pay the money owed, the defendant threatened her with custody and told her that her young daughter might be taken into care.

He then offered an "escape route", before taking the woman upstairs and raping her in her own bedroom. Although the incident was reported by the victim at the time, jurors were told how police were unable to charge Lomax due to a lack of evidence.

On Friday, he sat motionless in the dock as he was told that a jury had convicted him by majority verdicts of single counts of rape and misconduct in a public office.

Friends and family who sat in the public gallery burst into tears as Lomax, of Waterlooville, Hampshire, was handed a jail sentence of four years and nine months.