DNA evidence implicates Brit as Dutch rape suspect walks free

Roman van der Dussen (left) and Mark Dixie (right).

SPAIN´S Supreme Court has overturned part of a prison sentence being served by Dutch national Romano Liberto van der Dussen, after new DNA evidence implicating a British suspect was released. 

In 2005, Van der Dussen was sentenced to 15-and-a-half years in prison for the sexual assault, attempted rape, injury and violent robbery of three women in resort-town Fuengirola. 

Two of the victims and a third witness who was watching from a window identified Van der Dussen, who was 30 at the time, as the culprit. 

Since his arrest, Van der Dussen has maintained his innocence, while his DNA was never found at the scene. 

In November 2015, a Fuengirola courthouse was sent a report by British Police, which confirmed that the DNA found matched that of Mark Dixie, a British man living in the area at the time. 

Dixie is already serving a 34-year jail sentence for the rape and murder of a young British model in London in 2005. 

Referring to one of the three victims of Van der Dussen’s alleged crimes, the Supreme Court’s latest ruling confirmed that the new DNA evidence had allowed the courts ‘greater certainty in this case to exclude the participation of the accused in the crime of sexual assault.’ 

In May 2015, Van der Dussen told Spanish press: “I have been in jail for over 11 years for crimes I did not commit. I have been through an indescribable hell.”

The Dutch man will be released from prison soon, having already served more than the nine years he received for his part in the two other crimes. 

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