'Most dangerous' sex killer jailed for the rest of his life

A serial sex attacker was told he would spend the rest of his life in jail today after being convicted of the murder of a 12-year-old girl.

A serial sex attacker was told he would spend the rest of his life in jail today after being convicted of the murder of a 12-year-old girl.

Illegal immigrant Andrezej Kunowski, described by a senior detective as one of "the most dangerous sex offenders" he had encountered, attacked almost 30 children and young women in Britain and Poland.

He strangled Katerina Koneva to death in May 1997 but was not caught until last year when he was jailed for raping a 21-year-old student.

The paedophile was told by the Common Serjeant of London, Judge Peter Beaumont, that life must mean life to protect others.

The judge said: "I would be failing in my duty in the light of the evidence about your behaviour both in Poland and this country if I did not ensure you spend the rest of your life in prison."

Kunowski had taken the life of a child "of great promise". He added: "You ended it in circumstances of great violence and terror.

"I have no doubt at all that you committed that offence for the purposes of sexual gratification of some sort."

Kunowski, 48, of Acton, west London, denied the killing.

After the verdict, the jury was told he had fled to London after a judge in Poland released him on bail for an operation in 1996.

Katerina's parents Trajce and Zaklina wept as was jailed.

Earlier Mrs Koneva sobbed uncontrollably as Kunowski's catalogue of sick crimes was read to the court.

Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting, said Kunowski had escaped from custody on a number of occasions during his 30-year career.

Some of the victims of his 17 rapes, 8 attempted rapes and one attempted murder in Poland were girls of 10 and 12 ambushed as they arrived home from school.

Others were dragged into bushes and fields. He was arrested in 1995 for raping a 10-year-old as she got home from school.

He was also charged with raping a 12-year-old but the following year was allowed free by the judge.

He fled to Britain where he assumed a Portuguese identity.

Mr Hilliard said he was later detained in the UK and ordered to be deported when an asylum claim failed in 2002.

But Kunowski had failed to turn up for deportation and raped the Korean student a few days later.

He was jailed at the Old Bailey last year for nine years for raping her at his home.

His DNA was then matched with a hair found on Katerina's cardigan and DNA from his final Polish rape.