Bedsit rapist becomes subject of first legal exclusion order

A RAPIST released from jail has been banned from visiting parts of Manchester and all the city's universities at night after police yesterday obtained the first "curfew order" to come from a British court.

The ruling by Alan Berg, a Manchester stipendiary magistrate, restricts the movements of Michael Gordon, 35, known as the Bedsit Beast after he raped two students at knifepoint. He was jailed for 12 years in 1990 for attacks on the women, aged 20 and 25, after breaking into their bedsits while they slept. He had prowled the area at night to select his targets.

Police told the court yesterday that they had seen Gordon recently looking into windows and wandering the streets in the area where he committed the attacks. They believed he was searching for a new victim.

The court ruled that Gordon still posed a risk and made him the subject of a Sex Offenders Order, under legislation that came into force at the beginning of this month.

The civil order, which runs for eight years, bans Gordon from much of the southern part of the city between 10pm and 7am, excepting his home in the Rusholme area, which is inside the "exclusion zone". It also bans him from the premises and grounds of Manchester's three universities. A breach of the order could lead to a maximum five-year jail term.

He returned to the area in March after being released from a bail hostel to which he was sent after serving eight years of his jail sentence.

Officers told the court they had seen Gordon peering through bedsit windows at night and then running away shoeless on tip-toe.

When he was arrested he had a sexually explicit audio tape with him, which appeared to have been made during an encounter with prostitutes.

Detective Sergeant Chris Lowe, who helped to jail Gordon in 1988, told the court: "I am under no doubt whatsoever that Mr Gordon is using peeping activities to target victims."

Gordon's probation officer, Penny Jones, described him as "cool and calculating".

Mr Berg said: "I have no hesitation in concluding an order is necessary in protecting the public from serious harm from him."

Wayne Jackson, representing Gordon, said an appealwould be lodged immediately.