A decade on, Night Stalker rapist given 37 years’ jail
Beast had fled to India after murdering his final victim
A MURDERER and rapist known as the Night Stalker was jailed for life yesterday following a ten-year battle to extradite him from India to face justice.
Aman Vyas committed a sickening series of rapes and a murder during a three- month rampage in London in 2009.
His victims and their families described him as an ‘absolute pig’ and spoke of their overwhelming relief as he was locked up for a minimum of 37 years at Croydon Crown Court. He had been convicted on July 30 of murdering Michelle Samaraweera, 35, as well as the rapes of three other women.
Mr Justice Bryan told Vyas: ‘In the spring of 2009, there was a stranger rapist prowling the streets of Walthamstow looking for his prey. You were that rapist.’
The judge said Vyas stalked Miss Samaraweera before suffocating her. ‘You were willing to kill in pursuit of your sexual perversions and in Michelle you found a victim who fought back,’ he said. ‘She had to be silenced and silenced she was.’
A month after the attack Vyas, 35, the university-educated son of a wealthy Indian businessman, fled the UK – two days after a Crimewatch appeal featured an e-fit picture.
In 2010 his former boss saw a police appeal and gave officers a water bottle used by his brother, providing vital DNA evidence linking him to the crimes.
A manhunt began and it was revealed that at one stage Vyas was in New Zealand where he married and had two children. He then made his way to Singapore and the trail went cold.
However, in 2011 he was arrested in New Delhi but the extradition process became so protracted that David Cameron, prime minister at the time, had to intervene personally in 2016.
Vyas spent almost nine years on bail in India and it was not until last October that he became the third person ever to be successfully extradited from the country, following at least 30 hearings in the New Delhi courts.
Miss Samaraweera’s sister, Ann Chandradasa, 48, said yesterday: ‘ He is a pig. I actually really thought that he was literally going to get away with murder because of the amount of time he was in India and the amount of hearings.
‘I’m just glad we have finally got justice for Michelle and I’m glad that the other victims have got justice as well.
‘It’s partial closure. Him being in prison doesn’t take away the pain of what’s happened and what all these women have been
‘You were willing to kill’
through.’ Vyas was 24 and working at a dry cleaners in Walthamstow at the time of the attacks.
He followed his first victim, who was 59 at the time, into her flat before raping and beating her in her own bedroom shortly after midnight on March 24, 2009.
The second victim, who was 46, was violently raped on a filthy mattress in an alley on April 22. His third victim, who was 32, was raped in a churchyard on April 29. Vyas broke her nose and jaw, and left her unconscious in a bush.
Miss Samaraweera, his final victim, was attacked when she went out to buy milk from a supermarket. CCTV footage showed Vyas following her into the shop. She was raped and strangled in a playground, where her body was found by a passer-by the next day.
During his trial he claimed each of the women consented to sex and Miss Samaraweera had been fine when he left her. He even tried to explain away the DNA evidence by suggesting his brother Raj may have been responsible.
Mrs Chandradasa said she was pleased he was finally facing justice, but added that she was ‘painfully aware’ it would not bring her sister back or give his victims their lives back.