A man has been arrested for a violent robbery and a rape, nine years after police matched his DNA to the crimes, reports the AD on Friday.

The offences, committed in 1997 and 1998, have led eventually to the arrest of a 43-year-old man from Drachten on Thursday.

But it emerged that the man’s DNA made a hit with samples collected from the crime scenes in 2008, when the police and OM prosecution service were notified. ‘The public prosecution and police are investigating what went wrong and why no investigation was started, although the match was known,’ said the OM in a press release.

The AD newspaper labelled the delay ‘blunder justice’. In June 1997, a 22-year-old prostitute in Leeuwarden was violently robbed of a gold necklace that the customer had offered her in lieu of payment. That woman died in 2008.

In July 1998, a 35-year-old woman was raped in her home in Delft by a man she had met on a night out. She has now been informed about the arrest, as have the relatives of the first victim.

Both cases had been closed. But for reasons unknown the DNA match came to the attention of The Hague’s vice squad last year, and  subsequent investigation led to the arrest this week.

The OM has said the processes around DNA reports have improved and a new national procedure to monitor matches will begin in April.