A teenage pervert who attacked four women after playing the controversial computer game Grand Theft Auto has been jailed indefinitely.

Groundsman Ryan Chinnery, 19, who became a sexual predator, prowling the streets in his car close to where he lived in Ashford looking for victims, will have to serve a minimum of four years before being considered for release.

Judge Philip Statman said: "What most troubles me is the mirror conduct between pornography and that which he later does. It is as if spurring on comes from the pornographic material.

"I know part of this case referred to something called Grand Theft Auto. While it appears the defendant does not accept it influenced his conduct on that particular evening, it could not have helped him, I would have thought, in all the circumstances of the case."

Eleanor Laws, prosecuting, said the video game could well have played a big part in him committing the offences.

She told Maidstone Crown Court how he spent much of his time playing the best seller which has sold some 35 million copies worldwide.

"It is a very well-known and well-used video game," she said. "It may go some way to explaining his attitude towards women."

Chinnery, of Christopher Bushell Way, Kennington, Ashford, initially denied three sexual assault charges but changed his plea to guilty to one of them halfway through his trial in September.

The prosecution agreed to leave the remaining two charges on the court file. He had previously admitted a charge of assault by penetration on another woman.

The judge found that a sentence for public protection was necessary because of Chinnery's dangerousness.

He will serve a minimum of four years, less 14 months spent on remand and will not be released until the parole board decides it is safe to do so.

Chinnery was banned from working with children indefinitely and will remain on the sex offenders' register for life.

"Stranger attacks, even in today's society, are mercifully rare, but when they occur they cause the utmost distress, not just to the victims but to the community as a whole."

"You have sought to dominate and humiliate women to gain sexual satisfaction. You thrive on the feeling of power and control."

In the video game a man drives around in a car and attacks prostitutes. But none of Chinnery's victims were prostitutes - just innocent women walking home.

Miss Laws said on August 27 last year Chinnery went out in the early hours, grabbed a middle-aged woman, who was walking home from seeing a friend, by her throat and they fell down a bank, leaving her with a broken arm.

Despite her injury he forced her to undress, sexually assaulted her and then performed a sex act which degraded the victim.

But police obtained a DNA sample from the woman and Chinnery was arrested two days later.

He attacked another of his victims, a 20-year-old, as she was walking home from a party. She was saved when her mobile phone rang and the teenager ran off.

He asked another victim, aged 30, for drugs and then offered her money for sex. When she told him she was not a prostitute, he carried her along a path.

They fell down an embankment into a river. He panicked and the woman tried to "placate" him. Three youths helped them out and Chinnery then ran off.

In a further attack, he grabbed a 31-year-old woman on her way home from work late at night. He let go and fled when a man walked towards them.

Det Insp Rachel Ireland, said after the case: “I would like to thank the women who were subjected to these attacks by Chinnery for their bravery when giving evidence.

“Kent police are satisfied with the sentence that Mr Chinnery has been given and a dangerous offender has been taken off the streets. All the officers involved in this case have worked hard to achieve this.”

Area commander for Ashford, Chief Inspector John Frayne, said: “This is an excellent result and the investigation team are rightly pleased with the outcome, which was achieved by means of a highly professional investigation.”