THE officers eventually saw the fruit of their labours when Brown admitted his guilt - thanks to the CCTV image of his face and the positive DNA evidence

THE officers eventually saw the fruit of their labours when Brown admitted his guilt - thanks to the CCTV image of his face and the positive DNA evidence.

DS Hall said Brown pleaded guilty after officers presented the court with their evidence.

"The judge decided it should be shown to the offender. His barrister came back and said he was going to plead guilty," she said.

DS Hall said the whole team was 'keen' to hear today's sentence.

"Every day the police officers are doing their best to reduce crime to make people feel safe," she said. "Every so often something like this happens - and, when it does happen, everything is thrown into it.

"Devon and Cornwall is the third safest area in the country and we are committed to keeping it that way through hard work and dedication such as this. Hopefully, people will feel safer knowing that.

"Every job is different. If you take this job from the beginning, we had no idea who he was, we had no forensic evidence, only CCTV without his face.

"From the start, the ethos of the team was 'we are going to get this guy, we are going to solve it' .