A Tube driver from Neasden has been found guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in 1994 after his DNA matched him to the attacks 21 years later.
Russell Chandler, of Chartley Avenue, was a 19-year-old when he attacked his first victim at Mill Hill Broadway Station in May 1994 and a second woman two days later.
After the attacks the 41-year-old, who grew up in Brent and formerly lived in Watford, took up a soccer scholarship at a US university before returning to be with his girlfriend, who he later married.
The couple have a two-year-old son and he has a step-daughter aged eight.
Harrow Crown Court heard Chandler was living a respectable life until he was arrested for an unrelated offence earlier in May this year and his DNA proved a match to the two attacks.
During his trial he admitted sexually assaulting the two women, claiming he had done so after he was teased for ‘being a virgin’ by a friend, but had denied raping them.
He told the court he was on his way home in Colindale and had stopped to urinate in the underpass when he saw the woman and pinned her to the ground in a “moment of madness” on May 9, 1994.
The victim, who was pushed down with her face to the floor and raped sustained scrapes and bruises to her legs during the attack.
He said: “I didn’t know what I was doing. It was an out of body experience.”
His second victim was sexually assaulted by Chandler on May 11, 1994, near the first attack.
A cold case review in 2005 drew no new clues until Chandler was arrested this year.
Yesterday he was convicted of raping his first victim and sexually assaulting the second woman.
He was remanded in custody for sentencing on January 14.
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