A man has been convicted of raping a woman after a two-year study of DNA samples to rule out his identical twin brother.

A judge jailed Rick K. for four years for the attack on a 76-year-old woman in a nature reserve near Schipborg, Drenthe, in 2019.

K., 28, from Zuidlaren, was arrested shortly afterwards and gave a DNA sample which matched a trace found on the victim’s clothing.

However, his twin brother Mike, who was not a suspect, also gave a sample which matched. The court ordered the Dutch forensic service (NFI) to study the two samples to prove conclusively that Mike could not have committed the crime.

Scientists found five differences in the brothers’ DNA profiles – out of around three billion elements – which made the chance of Rick being the assailant around a billion times greater, the court was told.

Rick’s sentence was longer than the three years demanded by the prosecution service after judges said the victim’s age should be taken into account. The woman was attacked while out Nordic walking in July 2019.