The notorious M25 rapist, who savagely attacked a woman in Forest Hill on Christmas Day in 1987, has died behind bars.

Antoni Imiela died aged 63 at HMP Wakefield on Thursday, just months after he was told he had been referred for parole.

Imiela was given seven life sentences in 2004 for a string of rapes against women and girls as young as 10 across the south east.

The former railway worker from Appledore, near Ashford in Kent, targeted victims he had never met, dragging them into a secluded area, threatening to kill them and hitting them.

The attacks, which began in November 2001, sparked a huge manhunt, with around 350 police officers from six forces involved in Operation Orb.

After Imiela's conviction a cold case review into a Christmas Day sex attack in 1987 found a match between his DNA and the victim, Sheila Jankowitz.

He was sentenced at the Old Bailey to 12 years in March 2012 after being found guilty of raping the mum-of-two in what had been a chilling precursor to his later crimes

During the trial of the 1987 rape in Forest Hill, prosecutor Richard Hearnden described the attack.

He said: "He told her that if she so much as looked at his face he would murder her.

"He punched her hard and repeatedly in the face when she resisted him."

The trial heard that Mrs Jankowitz never recovered from the effects of her ordeal, leading to her being hospitalised in a mental health unit. She died in 2006.

Imiela also had victims in Putney Heath and Epsom in 2002.

The Prison Service confirmed Imiela's death, which is not being treated as suspicious.

The Daily Mirror reported that the rapist had been suffering from heart problems.

A spokeswoman said: "HMP Wakefield prisoner Antoni Imiela died in custody on Thursday March 8 2018.

"As with all deaths in custody, there will be an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman."