Life for M25 rapist

A Man who stalked his victims like an "animal its prey" was today found guilty of a terrifying series of rapes in and around the M25.

Antoni Imiela, 49, was sentenced to life for raping seven women and a 10-year-old girl

in a 12-month spree. He pounced on them as they walked near woods and playing fields - using violence and threats to subdue them. Police this afternoon revealed that Imiela is to be questioned about the unsolved murder of 13-year-old Milly Dowler in March

2002. Imiela struck in Kent, Surrey, Hertfordshire and in London, on Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath. There were cries of "Yes" from the packed gallery at Maidstone Crown Court at the verdicts.

His oldest victim, aged 52, wept. She hugged her husband and joined in the tears of the parents of a 10-year-old girl who was snatched as she took down posters at a youth club. Imiela, of Appledore near Ashford in Kent, stared impassively at the jury forewoman today as she read out the verdicts. Imiela was handed a total of seven life sentences this afternoon and was condemned as "a ruthless sexual predator". Mr Justice Owen said he should serve a minimum of 10 years before he would be even considered for release.

But the judge went out of his way to emphasise that Imiela was an extreme danger to women. He said: "You are a ruthless sexual predator who carefully selected the locations in which you could attack the unsuspecting victims. overpowering them with brute force.

"In most cases you made threats to kill, dragging them into the cover of undergrowth and most thought they would die at your hands."

Police from forces across the South-East combined in the biggest manhunt since the Yorkshire Ripper. Imiela, a married railway maintenance contractor, used the motorway network - particularly the M25 - to drive to and from the scenes of his attacks.

He stripped, blindfolded and bound his victims, often beating them. Imiela took items of clothing or other souvenirs from his victims which earned him the nickname the " Trophy Rapist" during the investigation.

His sheer ruthlessness was highlighted during the court case. Knowing that police were closing in on him, Imiela left the M25 area and drove to Birmingham where he snatched a 10-year-old girl off the street and subjected her to a six-hour ordeal. The court heard that this attack was his "act of defiance" before he was caught. He was convicted today of attempting to rape her.

The jury was discharged this afternoon after failing to reach verdicts on two charges that Imiela raped an 18-yearold woman in Woking, Surrey, in July 2002.

The attacks began in November 2001 and ended in October 2002. On one day, 11 July 2002, he attacked two women. At 10.30am in Earlswood, Surrey, he pounced on a 30-year-old woman out jogging. He dragged her into undergrowth and raped her.

Hours later he snatched a 26-yearold nurse on Putney Heath. He bound her hands and ankles and stole her mobile phone. Imiela rang her mother on the phone saying: "You know your daughter, the blonde one," and taunted her about the assault.

He said: "She's a bit tied up at the moment." In August he carried out a knifepoint rape of a 52-year-old walking her dog on Wimbledon Common. Less than 24 hours later he raped a 26-year-old woman in Epsom. He struck as she returned from a day's shopping.

After the case Imiela was branded one of Britain's most evil men by a detective involved in the case. "You would have to look for a very long time to find someone as bad as this," said the senior officer.

Detective Superintendent Colin Murray described Imiela as " without exception the worst criminal I have ever dealt with".

One of the victims who did not figure in today's verdicts was a 12-yearold girl. She was so traumatised by her rape that police were forced to drop the charge amid serious concerns of the impact on her.

The girl had been dragged from her bike and raped in undergrowth on wasteland as she cycled home in Bracknell, Berkshire.

Fibres matching Imiela's railway worker's jacket were found on her clothing and he was initially charged with rape but the prosecution decided

to drop it before the trial started.

Detective Superintendent Mark Warwick said: "She's in an incredibly traumatised state, she really didn't want to have go give evidence. Her parents were consulted and supported the decision not to proceed.

"She is a brave girl, still going through a terrible ordeal after what was a very harrowing experience."

Imiela's last victim, the 10-year-old he kidnapped in Birmingham, had to re-live her sex ordeal in court. She was reduced to tears by his barrister Rebecca Poulet, QC, who insisted the girl had lied. The other 10-year-old girl - Imiela's first victim whom he grabbed outside a youth club in Ashford - did not have to appear at court. But a video of her describing the sickening ordeal she suffered was played to the jury. "This young innocent little girl may have had her life destroyed by this," said Mr Murray.

"I have sons, not daughters, but I visualised her being my daughter and, like everybody else, wondering how I would cope in the circumstances."

Imiela was released from a 14-year sentence in 1996 for a series of armed robberies and today's convictions reignited demands for a national database of convicted criminals' DNA.

Mr Murray: "If Imiela had been on a national DNA database we would have got him straight after the first attack and the other women and girls would not have been attacked.

"It is a political question but anything that helps the police would make our lives much easier."

In his campaign Imiela attacked his victims at knifepoint, dragging them into woods or undergrowth. His sheer callousness was illustrated when he told one victim: "This will not hurt you physically, you will just be emotionally scarred."

Police got DNA evidence from his first attack. But it was not until Imiela's eighth attack that police got a good description of him because he blindfolded many of his victims.

The victim, a 14-year-old girl from Stevenage, provided a detailed description of the rapist and an e-fit image was broadcast on the BBC's Crimewatch programme, which prompted 4,000 responses. Among them was an anonymous caller who gave Imiela's home address. Police visited him and took a DNA sample.

Police sources said this afternoon that there is nothing specific to link him to the murder of Milly Dowler.

But crucially his method of operation in at least one of the rapes he was convicted of today has similarities to how Milly was snatched from the street.

Detectives investigating the disappearance of the girl as she walked home from school in Walton-on-Thames believe she was bundled into a car. Her remains were discovered in woods in Hampshire in September last year.

Surrey detectives investigating Milly's murder have already carried out some work on Imiela. His work record shows that he was working on the railway near where she was snatched at the time.