‘M25 rapist’ Antoni Imiela referred for parole

A MAN dubbed the M25 rapist has been referred for parole a week after the decision to free another serial rapist caused uproar.

In March 2004, Antoni Imiela, a railway worker from Appledore, near Ashford in Kent, was given seven life sentences at Maidstone Crown Court for a series of stranger rapes across the Home Counties against women and girls as young as 10.

Last week it emerged that cabbie John Worboys – who was jailed indefinitely in 2009, with a minimum term of eight years, for drugging and sexually assaulting women passengers – would be freed.

Some of his victims were not told of his imminent release, prompting an apology from the chairman of the Parole Board, while a review into how the board makes its decisions has been launched.

Any hearing to decide Imiela’s parole is unlikely to take place in the next six months, the Press Association understands.

A spokesman for the Parole Board said: “We can confirm that the Ministry of Justice has referred the case of Antoni Imiela for a parole review.

“The review is following the standard six-month process for all indeterminate sentence prisoners and will be reviewed on the papers in the first instance.

“The review may be concluded on the papers or alternatively it may be directed to an oral hearing.”

Imiela, now 63, carried out a series of sex attacks across the South East on women and girls.

In March 2013, he was sentenced to 12 years at the Old Bailey after being found guilty of rape, indecent assault and another serious sex offence against a mother-of-two on Christmas Day in 1987.