PIONEERING work by detectives in the North-East has led to 1,544 rape cases being reopened by the Metropolitan Police.

The London force will look again at the cases of unsolved stranger rapes between 1987 and 1999.

The work was inspired by officers in the Northumbria force, who are working on 60 reopened cases using new DNA techniques - and say they have already established new evidence in 33 cases.

The new system means that DNA samples not found at the time of the offence can be retrieved from clothing and other materials years later and used in evidence.

Officers hope that new samples will lead to a conviction in one in three unsolved cases, catching rapists who have so far avoided justice.

Since Northumbria Police started to use DNA retrieval, five people in the force area have been arrested on suspicion of rape.

Last week, the operation's first success was recorded when a 25-year-old salesman was jailed for five years for raping a Newcastle student in 1995.

Once evidence has been uncovered, officers will research the background of the suspect and the victim before deciding how to tell them that the case could be solved.

Detective Inspector Peter Farrell said: "We think we may have a lead on a series of rapes that occurred in North Tyneside in the mid-1980s.

"We believe one man may have committed between four and nine offences. This is about getting justice for the victims."