A sex attacker has been jailed after a regional daily forced police to reopen an investigation into his crime.

The Derby Telegraph has won justice for the victim of Daniel Oakes after he groped her at Derby bus station.

The 25-year-old woman was initially told by officers her attacker could not be identified, despite the fact she took photographs of him and that he was wearing an electronic tag around his ankle.

She subsequently approached the Telegraph, which in turn then confronted Derbyshire Constabulary with the evidence.

The Telegraph covered the sentencing of Oakes on its front page

The photos were used in a public appeal that helped to snare Oakes, 19, who has now been jailed for 26 weeks after pleading guilty to one charge of sexual assault on a female.

His victim, who has now won an apology from the force, told the Telegraph: “Even though I had a very good image and description of him, they chose to avoid trying to attempt to serve justice.

“I felt he would have been easily traceable with the tag on his ankle.

“I’m happy he’s now been convicted, but it shouldn’t have taken third-party intervention to have got to this point.”

Oakes, from Derby, committed his crime at around 9am on 22 September.

When his victim pushed her attacker away, she was threatened with being thrown out of the bus station for being aggressive.

Derbyshire Constabulary is now reviewing its handling of the case following the pervert’s guilty plea at Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court.

A force spokesman told the Telegraph: “An officer, after being allocated and reviewing the information available, including images taken by the victim, had put forward the case to be filed due to there not being enough evidence to pursue.

“All crimes, before they are filed, must be reviewed by a sergeant, however, this had not yet taken place in this instance. The crime had therefore not been filed at that point.

“Once the review of the information took place, including the photos, it was deemed that the images were of good enough quality for an identification to be made.

“The images were placed on an appeal and the person, we now know to be Daniel Oakes, was identified, arrested, and charged. There are clear processes in place for how crimes are filed – and a sergeant review is an important part of the oversight of the cases.

“A review into the initial investigation of the incident is ongoing by the officer’s line manager who will assess if further advice or support is required.

“We are sorry that the service this victim received did not meet the level that she, or we, would expect and a review into the circumstances of the initial investigation are ongoing – after which any further advice or support that may be identified will be delivered.”

HTFP has approached the Telegraph for a comment.