Violent rapist who tortured women threatens to murder victim in court as he is jailed for life

An "evil" rapist jailed for life for attacks on two women threatened to murder one of his victims as he was handed his sentence.

Andrew Delsol, 55, said: “I’ll murder that b***h” as he was led to the cells after being jailed for life following a two-week trial.

Delsol, described by a judge as “vicious and self-obsessed”, was found guilty of 11 offences of physical and sexual violence against two women between 1985 and 2001.

During the trial at Bradford Crown Court, the first woman told how she was beaten and raped by Delsol in Bradford when she was a teenager.

His attacks on her included punching and kicking her, trying to drown her in the bath and indecently assaulting her with a carpet cleaner pole.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "I did think he was a bit of a schizophrenic, but I think it’s more ‘psychopath’ now.

“Psychologically, I think he was just playing with my head really. He was like a Jekyll and Hyde.”

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The court heard that Delsol battered the second woman round the head with a hairbrush and plunged a screwdriver into her leg, as well as pouring petrol on her before flicking a lighter and threatening to kill her.

The woman, who admitted she was smitten with Delsol, said he would assault her in the woods where no one could hear her screaming and attacks included holding her under water in a lake, threatening her with an axe, picking her up by the hair and punching her on the side of the head.

She said: “He just battered me black and blue every day. He needs putting away for life. He’ll carry on hurting people. He was handsome and beautiful… but he was evil."

Delsol was ordered to serve a minimum of nine years behind bars before he can be considered for release by the Parole Board.

The 55-year-old is currently serving a 13-year prison sentence imposed in 2015 for terrorising a young mother he locked in an attic flat over a four-month period.

He was also previously jailed for eight years at Carlisle Crown Court in 2002 after holding his teenage girlfriend captive for six days, threatening to dismember her and attacking her.

In 2009, Lancashire Police issued a Violent Offender Order to protect women from Delsol, who was first jailed in 1989 after he burned a woman with a blowtorch, tried to make her drink bleach and forced her out of a window with a rope around her neck.

Detective Constable Andrew Ellis, from West Yorkshire Police, said: “Delsol is clearly a very dangerous man and I hope the sentence he has received today will be of some comfort to his victims.”

After he was sentenced, one of Delsol’s victims said in a statement: “I am elated at this verdict which means I can move forward with my life, knowing the man who violently and sexually abused me and other women has been given a life sentence.”