A former Roxbury man who for 15 years eluded identification as a violent rapist was sentenced to three decades in prison today after pleading guilty to aggravated rape, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

DOWARD FORBES (D.O.B. 12/30/65) admitted to breaking into a 21-year-old Back Bay woman’s Beacon Street home, beating her, and raping her in the early morning hours of Sept. 6, 1992. The case went unsolved until 2009, when Forbes was identified with the help of a DNA database.

“DNA is powerful, persuasive evidence, but it takes more than that to hold a violent sex offender like this one accountable,” Conley said. “It takes foresight of the sort that led us to indict his genetic profile before we knew who he was. It takes skill of the sort that Boston Police criminalists showed when they maintained the evidence in this case a decade before it would be admissible in court. It takes diligence of the sort our prosecutor showed in assembling an array of witnesses and investigators in preparation for trial almost 20 years after the fact. And most of all, it takes compassion and support for the victim to ensure that her story is heard above all else.”

Although biological evidence was recovered in the 1992 investigation, the attack was committed before DNA was admissible in Massachusetts courts. The evidence was, however, stored under laboratory conditions. In 2007, as the 15-year statute of limitations was about to expire, Conley’s office indicted the still-unknown offender as “John Doe,” identified by his DNA profile.

Prosecutors also submitted the unknown offender’s DNA profile to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, which contains samples from known offenders ordered to provide samples and unknown offenders whose DNA has been recovered from crime scenes.

At the time of the Beacon Street attack, Forbes was on parole for attempted rape convictions incurred in western Massachusetts during the 1980s. Two years after the Beacon Street attack, he was convicted of rape in Georgia. He served a state prison term there and in 2008 was ordered back to Massachusetts to answer on the parole violations.

Because of his prior Massachusetts felony convictions, Forbes was ordered to submit a sample to the state’s DNA database. That sample was also uploaded to CODIS, leading to a “hit,” or match, with the previously-unidentified sample recovered from the Beacon Street case. Conley’s office then re-indicted Forbes under his true name.

That tactic was used in the identification, prosecution, and conviction of serial rapist JERRY DIXON (D.O.B. 4/19/73), currently serving state prison sentences for violent attacks on women in Boston during the winter, spring, and summer of 1991. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2010 that prosecutors may use an unidentified assailant’s unique genetic profile to secure an indictment, then amend the indictment to reflect his or her true name even after the statute of limitations expires.

Prior to sentencing, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Regina Quinlan heard an impact statement in which the victim called for a harsh and lengthy punishment.

“Nineteen years have passed and my physical scars have faded but the emotional damage remains for life,” she said. “I was a young woman, 21 years old and ready to conquer the world. I was excited about spending the first night in my first apartment. Then, I experienced every woman’s worst nightmare …. My pain is the pain of all women who have been violated. On behalf of them and myself, finally, I stand up today to speak out against rape, the utmost act of hatred. I implore you, Your Honor, to ensure this will not happen again, at least under the wrath of this dangerous sexual predator …. He should not be free to walk the streets again.”

Had the case proceeded to trial, Assistant District Attorney Gloriann Moroney would have introduced evidence and testimony to prove that Forbes gained access to the victim’s Beacon Street apartment and ambushed her after she returned home from a night out with friends.
He told her to be quiet, then punched her repeatedly in the head and face while raping her. Later, he told her to count to 100 while he fled the scene.

The victim then left the building and ran toward the nearest Boston Police station – then located on Berkeley Street – until she ran into officers who had her transported to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where a rape kit was collected. Boston Police recovered additional evidence from the victim’s apartment.

Conley urged the victims of any crime, including sexual assault, to call 911 in an emergency. Survivors of sexual violence may also call the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center’s 24-hour hotline at 800-841-8371. The Boston Area Rape Crisis Center provides medical advocacy, legal services, counseling, and other services to victims of rape and sexual assault.

Anne Kelly-McCarthy was the DA’s victim-witness advocate on the case. Forbes was represented by attorney John Wood.