15 years' jail for serial sex attacker

A serial sex attacker who tried to rape a teenager as she rang the police on her mobile phone was jailed for 15 years today.

Mexican shelf stacker Victor Carrera, 26, targeted three women, all of whom had walked home alone in the early hours in Camden Town.

Carerra, of Harringay, had grabbed the 18-year-old girl just after she had called 999 and the emergency operator heard her desperate pleas for help.

John Jones, prosecuting, told Snaresbrook Crown Court: "This must be the first time in history that a victim has been on the telephone to police at the beginning of a sex attack."

Carrera was found guilty of attempting to rape the teenager, sexually assaulting an American teacher and raping a 20-year-old student in a seven-week spell.

The 18-year-old had been warned by her mother over the phone about an attacker featured in TV's Crimewatch as she returned from a night out at the Electric Ballroom nightclub.

She was so terrified she called the police just as Carrera grabbed her around the neck from behind and dragged her off. He ran off when he heard police sirens.