Rapist Michael Adam Khannan jailed after a 'coincidence too far'

Jan 28 2010 by Kerry Wood, The Journal

A CONVICTED rapist who reinvented himself as a club singer and then a private music tutor has been found guilty of raping a woman almost 30 years ago.

Michael Adam Khannan is today facing life behind bars after a jury took just 15 minutes to convict the 58-year-old of the horrific sex attack in the 1970s.

During the three-day trial the court heard Khannan, who worked as a club singer under the name Simon Preston, denied the charges throughout police interviews last September.

But yesterday at Durham Crown Court he was found guilty of attempting to rape and then indecently assaulting a 19-year-old barmaid in Peterlee, County Durham, in January 1978.

Khannan, of Claremount North Avenue, Gateshead, was arrested when semen found on the victim’s suspender belt was linked to his name on the National DNA Database. During the trial the ex-entertainer, who was jailed for six years for a rape and indecent assault in the early 1970s, did not give evidence.

Paul Cross, defending, said his client maintained the DNA was not his, despite experts claiming the chances of the DNA matching someone else were one in a billion.

When asked about the DNA, Khannan told police: “It can’t be mine. I can’t remember being in Peterlee. I can’t remember the last time I was even there.”

The jury heard the victim, now in her 50s, had managed to grab a card from her attacker’s pocket with the word “equity” on it.

She believed police at the time told her it was a card for the Equity Society, a union for actors and entertainers.

Amanda Rippon, prosecuting, told the court: “He is a convicted rapist and we have the coincidence of him living in the area and the coincidence of the Equity Card, we say that is a coincidence too far.”

She also revealed one of his defences was that the DNA evidence came from a supposed twin brother.