A DEPTFORD man obsessed with Orientals has been jailed for 18 years after raping three Japanese women.

Nigel Dean, aged 35, of Evelyn Street, prowled language schools and foreign language bookshops searching for his prey.

Jurors at the Old Bailey heard Dean had spent years in Tokyo and impressed women with his fluency in Japanese and his knowledge of the country.

He denied six counts of rape and a charge of choking one woman to enable him to carry out an attack.

Judge Christopher Hordern told Dean: "Each of your victims was subjected to what they clearly found a terrifying, as well as defiling experience. It seems to me you are an extremely dangerous man."

The court heard that in October, 2000, Dean was given a two-year suspended sentence in Tokyo for causing bodily injury to a woman and for immigration charges.

In the early 1990s he was cleared of rape at the Old Bailey when he was alleged to have attacked another Japanese woman.

April 29, 2003 17:00