A paranoid schizophrenic who escaped justice for 20 years after a sex attack in Kentish Town is finally facing jail. In July 1988, Raymond Samuels, now 52, broke into a woman s flat while she was sleeping and pinned her down. Wearing a pair of tights over

A paranoid schizophrenic who escaped justice for 20 years after a sex attack in Kentish Town is finally facing jail.

In July 1988, Raymond Samuels, now 52, broke into a woman's flat while she was sleeping and pinned her down.

Wearing a pair of tights over his face, he pressed down on his victim's throat and told her to "calm down" as he tried to undress.

But Samuels, of Lissenden Gardens, Kentish Town, was disturbed by his victim's auntie waking up in the next room and fled through a ground floor window.

At Southwark Crown Court this week, he was finally convicted of attempted rape - thanks to a thumb print left at the scene.

Judge Martin Beddoe will sentence Samuels tomorrow.

He told him on Tuesday: "I'm not going to sentence you today for what you must understand was a very serious offence committed by you 20 years ago.

"I can tell you now that at the moment it seems to me pretty inescapable on the information I have that you will be sentenced to a prison term."

Jurors were told how in April 1992 that Samuels had carried out an almost identical sex attack when he broke into a flat in the West End.

At the time of the 1988 attack, police found four fingerprints but despite extensive investigations they could not be matched to anyone.

Last year, the Met's Cold Case team reviewed the investigation and were able to arrest Samuels as the prints had remained on file.

Samuels was taken to Kentish Town police station on February 5 this year when his fingerprints were taken and they were found to be a match.

The victim, also from Kentish Town, made a statement to police after the attack and told how she was awoken at 3.30am by someone crashing in through the window.

She said: "I tossed off the covers of my bed on to the floor and started to scream.

"The person grabbed hold of my forearm and pulled me, forcing me to turn around and fall to my knees."

She scrambled to the locked door of her bedroom and struggled to pull it open - but the masked man was too fast for her, the court heard.

After a struggle, the petrified victim then noticed the attacker tugging at his belt and said to him: "I am going to get pregnant."

But a loud bang in the lounge disturbed Samuels and he fled through the ground floor window.

Samuels was convicted by a majority verdict of 10 to two but cleared of one count of burglary with intent to rape.