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| Double jeopardy case: Wendell Baker jailed for pensioner rape | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A man convicted under the amended double jeopardy law of raping a pensioner has been jailed for life. | |
| Wendell Baker, 56, of Walthamstow, had denied raping Hazel Backwell, then 66, at her home in Stratford, east London, in 1997. | |
| He was found not guilty after a judge decided in 1999 the case could not proceed for legal reasons. He was retried after the law changed in 2005. | |
| Baker has been ordered to serve a minimum of 10 years and six months. | |
| Ms Backwell suffered a "terrifying ordeal" and thought she was going to die at the hands of Baker, who broke into her home and attacked her, the Old Bailey heard. | |
| He tied her hands behind her back with flex and beat and raped her. He then proceeded to ransack her house before leaving her bound and trapped in a cupboard. | |
| The "terrified" victim was found by chance by a neighbour the following evening. | |
| Baker was acquitted of raping Ms Backwell, who died in 2002, when the first trial judge ruled DNA evidence had not been collected correctly and could not be used. | |
| After the law was amended he went on trial again. Jurors heard a DNA match was found "in the order of one in a billion" linking him to the case. |