Three men have been jailed in the space of a month for sex crimes committed up to 25 years ago, thanks to successful investigations by the Met’s Cold Case Sapphire Team.

The men, who include a fake minicab driver, were sentenced to a total of 11 years and six months after being identified through reviews of unsolved and attempted rape.

Charlie Ward, (51), was sentenced to five years for the rape of a young woman 25 years ago, Mustafa Hassan, (68), was jailed for five years for a rape more than 16 years ago, and Daniel Dolen, (32), was sentenced for the attempted rape of a 14-year-old-girl in another historic offence.

DC Shirley Lovell, of Sapphire Command, said: "These three individuals were extremely dangerous and predatory; using various means to commit offences against complete strangers.

"Achieving these results in a single month highlights the dedicated work carried out by the team to not only pursue and bring to justice those who commit such abhorrent crimes; but to continue those investigations even once a jail sentence is secured.”

Ward and Dolen were already serving jail sentences for similar offences when they were reinvestigated and brought before the courts again.

All three men committed the offences in separate cases and were sentenced in January and February 2012.

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