Victims could sue lottery rapist

A rapist who won £7 million on the National Lottery could now be sued by his victims, legal experts said today.

Iorworth Hoare, 52, may be forced to share his new-found wealth if the women he attacked launch civil claims against him. He was on weekend leave at a bail hostel when he bought the winning ticket for last Saturday's Lotto Extra draw.

Amid outrage over the prize, prison chiefs are examining whether they could ban inmates on leave from playing the Lottery.

Dr Ian Edwards, a lecturer in criminal law at the University of East Anglia, said: "Victims are entitled to sue for any loss or harm that they have suffered from their attacker."

Mark Leech, editor of The Prisons Handbook, said: "Victims may now of course want to have a slice of this prisoner's new-found wealth. They would be entitled to pursue civil claims."

Hoare broke no rules when he bought his ticket in Middlesbrough. Officials at the Home Office are understood to be studying the possibility of extending a restriction which bans prisoners on leave from entering casinos or betting shops.

Lottery operator Camelot is thought to be backing a ban to prevent the kind of bad publicity which has followed Hoare's win.

Meanwhile, it emerged today he hired high-profile London lawyers Schillings in a failed attempt to keep his jackpot secret.

The £400-an-hour firm, which normally represents celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Catherine Zeta-Jones, wrote legal letters on the rapist's behalf.

It is estimated that despite being behind bars, he could now earn up to £6,700 a week in interest after his numbers - 3, 5, 8, 18, 28 and 48 - came up. Julie Bindel, a campaigner against rape and violence, urged him to donate his prize to groups helping rape victims.

Hoare has now been moved from Leyhill open prison to a higher-security jail for fear he may use his fortune to abscond or that he might be targeted by other prisoners.

He was sentenced to life term in 1989 for the attempted rape of a 60-year-old woman in a Leeds car park, the culminationof a catalogue of attacks stretching back to the early Seventies for which he had already served a total of 18 years in prison.

Passing sentence at Leeds Crown Court, Mr Justice Rougier said: "Your previous record shows you are a menace to women. Every moment you are at liberty some woman is at risk."

Hoare's most horrific attacks came in 1983, when he indecently assaulted a teacher and then raped a 37-year-old housewife.

After spotting the housewife walking in a field near a Leeds hospital he dragged her into woods.

The prosecutor in the case told Leeds Crown Court: "These were ferocious, terrifying and degrading acts in daylight and on open land."

He was jailed for seven years but after his release tried to rape the 60-year-old, which resulted in the life sentence. He has reportedly already been splashing out with his fortune.

A fellow criminal staying in the bail hostel is reported to have said: "He was looking well smug with himself. He said, 'I'm going to be sound for the rest of my life'.

"He gave me £100 in cash and said the drinks were on him."