HORRIFIC SERIAL RAPIST SENTENCED TO LIFE IN HERTFORDSHIRE
BRUTAL rapist Petros Anthia, whose nine victims included an au pair subjected to a horrifying attack on Bernards Heath, has been jailed for life after dramatically changing his plea to guilty.He was sentenced at St Albans Crown Court yesterday after admitting the ten rape charges he had previously denied.
Judge John Bevan described him as predatory, dangerous, violent, and incorrigible, emphasizing that no woman was safe from his campaign and that he risked ruining the lives of his victims without remorse or pity.
Anthia, a Greek Cypriot builder residing on West Green Road, Haringey, pounced on his victims from behind, half strangling them as he dragged them to secluded spots to subject them to horrifying, painful, and prolonged ordeals.
The victim, an au pair then aged 20, was dragged from Sandridge Road into woodland on Bernards Heath on April 3, 2004, and violently raped.
The court heard that Anthia's van was caught on CCTV as he drove around the city center that night, selecting victims from crowds leaving pubs and waiting outside a Londis store.
He changed his pleas just after lunch on Tuesday, in the fourth week of a trial expected to last until the end of the month.
Anthia had previously been accused of raping a French woman six years earlier, but walked free from that trial when the victim failed to give evidence.
Prosecutor Miranda Moore presented a strong case using DNA evidence from semen stains, pollen, and metal particles transferred from Anthia's clothing to victims, alongside testimony from prostitutes and his partner Janet Coleshill, matching his sexual tastes to the details of the rapes.
Judge Bevan praised police work from Hertfordshire and the Metropolitan police in building an overwhelming case.
Anthia also raped a young woman near Hatfield on March 31, 2004, and four victims in north London between January 2003 and January 2004; two other women escaped and an attack in Hatfield occurred three weeks later.
The judge set a tariff of 25 years, with eligibility for parole in 2016 when he will have served half of his sentence, but made it clear he should not be released until he is infirm.
Anthia, who has lived in Britain since 1998 and had prior convictions for sexual assaults in Cyprus, told police he was under the control of a devil and sought medical help.
His defense requested credit for his late guilty plea, avoiding the need for victims to testify, and the judge indicated that had Anthia been convicted by a jury, he would have recommended that the ten life sentences be carried for life.
