The Brentwood railway rapist has apologised to his traumatised victim, even after he prolonged her agony by faking a DNA test in a bid to avoid justice.

Anthony Chandler, 41, raped the 25-year-old office worker in the station car park on January 3 1992 while he was living in Harold Wood, but evaded capture for six years.

But last year the police began to close in on him following a further attack.

And Chandler, in a last desperate bid to avoid capture, persuaded Ray Boyden, who he had met while in prison, to supply officers with fake mouth swab DNA tests. He then callously used the time the deception bought him to rape again.

Appearing before Basildon Crown Court last week, Chandler, from Waterloo Gardens, Romford, pleaded guilty to committing the Brentwood rape and two similar attacks in South Bermondsey and Beckton, London in 1998.

He and co-defendant Boyden also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

As Chandler's Brentwood and Beckton victims listened, Anthony Abell for the defence said: "The defendant appreciates that nothing I can say can undo what he did.

"But he wishes me to say that he bitterly regrets what he did, that he wishes to apologise for what he did and that he detests himself for what he did."

Prosecution barrister Christopher Moss QC told the court how Chandler, who was armed with a knife, pounced on his first victim in Brentwood station car park at around 6pm on January 3 1992, forced her to drive to the far end and then raped her.

After spending more than four years in prison for robbery, Chandler struck again in March 1998, raping a 37-year-old woman at South Bermondsey Railway Station in an almost identical attack.

By July, however, police officers working on Operation Catchment, the team specially set up by Essex Police, the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police to trace the rapist, had identified Chandler as a possible suspect.

In September, just weeks after watching officers appealing for help on BBC TV's Crimewatch programme, Chandler struck again, near Royal Albert Dock station in Beckton.

Police immediately launched a major surveillance operation, and Chandler was arrested four days later on September 25. Sentencing was postponed until June 25 to allow psychiatric reports to be prepared.

The head of Operation Catchment Detective Chief Supt Lee Weavers, welcomed the outcome, and paid tribute to Chandler's victims.

He said: "The principal focus must be at this time the three very brave, even courageous, women who have suffered at the hands of this man.

"The court has shown that he is calculating, vicious and dangerous."

Det Ch Supt Weavers said that they had so far been unable to link Chandler with any other attacks, but urged anyone who feels they have been a victim to call the police in confidence.

The picture of Anthony Chandler released by police.

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