Richard Neil found guilty in 1990s 'woodland rapist' Ontario cold case

Breaking news from Brampton, Ontario. A three-decade search for a predator known as the Woodland Rapist has ended. 67-year-old Richard Neal has been found guilty of 17 offences in connection with three brutal attacks on children in Ontario. CBC's Thomas Daig is following this case for us and joins us from outside the courthouse. And a warning to folks at home, some of the details of this story may be disturbing. Thomas, what more can you tell us about today's decision? Well, this was a 31-year search for who carried out three attacks on three young children in public parks in Kitchener, Brampton, and Oakville, Ontario, between 1992 and 1995. And one after the other, the foreperson of the jury today said, guilty, guilty, guilty, 17 charges, including kidnapping and sexual assault. Richard Neal, now the person identified as... The person the media dubbed the Woodland Rapist back in the 1990s. These attacks had been linked through DNA. So a task force had been struck involving Peel, Halton, and Waterloo regional police forces back in the 90s. They looked at, I think, something like 1,200 tips. Hundreds of persons of interest at the time, but could not find the assailant until 2024. I spoke with the former lead detective on that case in the 90s. He said at one point they thought that the attacker had died. The fact that this cold case, that the investigation had become impossible until forensic genetic genealogy changed things in the 2020s. I should say Richard Neal throughout the trial which began It began in early October. He insisted he wasn't involved in these attacks. He didn't dispute the fact that they happened or the details of them. The fact that an unknown assailant lured children into wooded areas and made them drink his urine and sexually assaulted each one of them, tied them up to trees as well. A brutal case that has now come to a conclusion, Natasha. Gosh, brutal indeed. Okay, Thomas, 31 years you said. How did the investigators finally crack this case? It was what's known as forensic genetic genealogy, which I mentioned. Two sources have told me that a relative of Richard Neal submitted their DNA profile to an Ancestry-type website, and investigators were then able to use a U.S. lab to match Neal to that profile. His DNA apparently matched semen from the crime scenes, his fingerprints as well, and he admitted himself he had a urine-drinking fetish. Today, he's been found guilty. All right. CBC's Tom Stagg in Brampton, Ontario. Thank you.