A JURY was told today how railway employee Antoni Imiela demonstrated he was a dangerous sexual predator during a year-long spree of rapes.

Mr Imiela, 49, of Heathside, Appledore, near Ashford, sat in the sealed dock in court 7 of Maidstone Crown Court as Mark Dennis opened the case for the prosecution.

Mr Imiela denies nine counts of rape, one of attempted rape, indecent assault and abduction the prosecution allege he committed between November 2001 and October 2002.

In his first attack he is said to have abducted and raped a ten-year-old girl on the Stanhope estate at Ashford.

Mr Dennis told the jury: "In the 12 months that followed [the Ashford attack] the defendant was to make eight further sexual attacks on lone females.

"He was not an opportunist who acted on the spur of the moment but someone who went looking for his victims, often travelling long distances using a location of his choice." The trial continues.

FULL STORY IN NEXT WEEK'S KENTISH EXPRESS