Man guilty of 1987 ‘lady in the lake’ murder where woman was bound and gagged
A serial attacker who raped a teenager and murdered a woman whose bound and gagged body was found in a lake has been convicted decades after his ‘horrendous’ crimes.
Donald Robertson, 66, was charged last year after a cold-case team found new DNA evidence linking him to Shani Warren’s death in April 1987.
The body of the 26-year-old, who lived in Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire, was found in Taplow Lake on the Easter weekend of that year.
Her car had been abandoned in a layby on the A4, with bin bags containing remnants of grass from Ms Warren having recently mowed the lawn, and an Easter egg in the driver’s footwell.
Robertson did not attend his trial and the dock at Reading Crown Court was empty as a jury found him guilty of both crimes.
He was convicted of the false imprisonment, indecent assault and murder of Ms Warren between April 16 and 19 – her wrists having been tied with a car jump lead and ankles bound by a tow rope.
He was also found guilty of the kidnap and rape of a 16-year-old girl, who cannot be identified, on July 16 1981.
The jury took seven hours and 18 minutes to reach their verdicts.
Police described ‘evil’ Robertson as someone with a ‘long and horrific list of ‘previous convictions’ and said it is ‘a regret’ there was not enough evidence at the time to charge him with the teenage girl’s rape in Slough.
Just days after being released by police in connection with that offence, Robertson raped a 14-year-old girl, a crime to which he pleaded guilty in October 1981.
In a similar vein, less than two months after attacking and killing Ms Warren and not far from Taplow Lake, he raped a 17-year-old girl who was walking home having missed the last train.
He is currently behind bars for that crime, having been convicted in 2010 after the incident was reviewed by the police’s cold case team.
The prosecution said new DNA evidence was the ‘cornerstone’ of the latest case against Robertson – with traces matching his found on the underwear of both victims as well as on a mouth gag used on Ms Warren.
Police said they were sorry it had taken so long to bring her attacker to justice, but that the case coming to court was down to advancements in forensic science.
Thames Valley Police’s major crime review team’s principal investigator, Peter Beirne thanks Ms Warren’s family for their patience and apologised to them that it had taken so long to convict Robertson.
Mr Beirne branded Robertson an ‘evil and dangerous’ man and a ‘predator’ who had attacked women and girls ‘throughout his adult life’, subjecting them to ‘the most horrendous acts’.
He said Robertson’s failure to attend his trial ‘speaks volumes’ to his character, labelling him ‘a coward, (who) wasn’t prepared to stand up and answer to the charges which were put before him’.
He praised the victim of the rape for her ‘strength of character’ in going to court to give evidence during the trial.
Robertson did not give evidence in his defence, and his lawyer called no witnesses but claimed another convicted rapist guilty of crimes around that time involving tying women up and attacking them could have been the culprit.
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