Khannan claims to have twin brother

But a court heard that club entertainer Michael Adam Khannan remained at large for the alleged second attack for more than three decades.

Durham Crown Court was told that recent advances in DNA profiling led to him emerging as a suspect when a match was found on a sample recovered from the victim’s underwear during a review of old sex attacks.

He was arrested, but despite the DNA evidence being put to him, Khannan denied the offence, saying he had a twin brother.

Amanda Rippon, prosecuting, told the court: “His insistence from first to last was that it was not him.

“His defence case statement said he had a twin, but the prosecution say this is the defendant trying every single avenue to bewitch and confuse.

“He had done his research and looked at DNA online, so he knew the only way you could interfere with that sort of match was by saying he had a twin.

“Police say ‘no, he doesn’t’, that was a lie and a deliberate lie.”

Addressing a jury at the opening of Khannan’s trial, Miss Rippon said: “The prosecution respectfully state that he attempted to rape this woman and indecently assaulted her.”

Miss Rippon said the evidence in the case was overwhelming.

But she said that although Khannan admitted having been a club entertainer at the time, appearing across the North-East, he said he did not believe he had performed in Peterlee, east Durham, where the alleged incident took place on January 17, 1978.

The victim, a 19-year-old, was waiting at a bus stop when she was dragged from behind at knifepoint into nearby undergrowth, where the alleged attack took place.

Miss Rippon said that Khannan was jailed in 1973 following a conviction for raping a woman and indecently assaulting two others.

She said he was released in 1976, little more than a year before the alleged incident in Peterlee.

Khannan, 58, also known as Preston, of Claremont North Avenue, Gateshead, denies attempted rape and indecent assault.

The trial continues today.