Freed killer is jailed for 'terrifying' rape ordeal

A killer, pronounced cured after five months' psychiatric treatment for the manslaughter of his sister, was sent back to hospital yesterday for subjecting a young woman to a harrowing rape ordeal.

Ranjeet Matharu, 39, first kidnapped the "terrified" 18-year-old as she walked home alone along a deserted street in Fulham, south-west London, and then ordered her into his rubbish-strewn van.

For the next two hours he forced his sobbing victim to submit to a series of sex acts.

As the woman begged to be allowed free, he then covered her from head to foot with after-shave, asking her repeatedly if she liked its smell.

Knightsbridge Crown Court heard that since the attack last June, the woman's life had been "destroyed" and she was too scared to venture out alone.

Judge Francis Aglionby made it clear to Matharu, who has been disowned by his family, that he would either be jailed for life or sent to a maximum security mental hospital.

Either way, he said, "you will not recover your liberty for a very, very long time". He adjourned the case for a three-month psychiatric assessment, coupled with a restriction order.

Matharu, of no fixed address, nodded slightly before he was led from the dock.

He was found guilty last November of two offences of rape, one of indecent assault, one of false imprisonment, and another of kidnapping. Psychiatric reports were ordered, but doctors were not able to determine the extent of his illness.

After the rape, Mathar forced his victim to tell him her name, address and phone number. He then drove her to her front door.

The following night Matharu went on the prowl again, in Ealing, west London.

In 1987 he was found guilty of the manslaughter, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, of his younger sister at the family home in Hounslow, west London.

After a quarrel, he had knocked her unconscious, strangled her with his hands and then tied telephone flex around her neck. He was sent to the St Bernard's unit at Ealing Hospital, but he was allowed out after just five months.