'Fulham strangler' guilty

A serial stalker who tried to rape and murder young women walking alone in London is facing life behind bars today.

Lee Kilty, a 21-year-old youth worker, was dubbed the "Fulham sex-strangler" after a series of terrifying late-night attacks. One victim was throttled until she passed out, sexually assaulted and then had her head beaten repeatedly against a brick wall.

The 26-year-old suffered haemorrhaging on the brain and a shattered eye socket - but survived.

Kilty, who lived with his mother in a house overlooking Hammersmith Bridge, pleaded guilty today at the Old Bailey to charges of attempted rape and murder and two counts of strangulation with intent to commit a sexual offence. Police revealed he had no criminal record, worked with disabled children in Notting Hill and came across as a "normal person".

Sources close to Kilty told the Standard:

In the first attack last April, Kilty leapt on the 26-year-old woman after she had left a rugby club dance at Fulham Town Hall.

The next assault was several weeks later, on a 29-year-old woman. She struck back and and some of Kilty's blood spilled on her jacket. He fled when residents were alerted by her screaming.

Police offered a ?10,000 reward fearing he would kill.

Six days later, Kilty attacked a 30-year-old in Haldane Road. Her screaming was heard by a resident and he fled. But undercover officers saw him running away and followed him to his house, where they found his first victim's mobile phone in his bedroom.

His DNA matched the blood on the second woman's jacket.

Neighbours, who regarded Kilty as harmless, today reacted with shock.

One said: "He was a bit simple and easy to make fun of. He had never had a proper girlfriend and was very shy around women."

That changed, however, when Kilty allegedly discovered cocaine. The source said: "He thought he was 7ft tall, the big guy, the governor."

Sentencing has been adjourned until the late summer pending psychiatric reports.