CCTV of absconded prisoner stalking 61-year-old victim

A convict who broke out of prison has been found guilty of committing a string of sexual and violent offences against women while on the run. 48-year-old Lee Cyrus went missing from an open prison in Lincolnshire in October last year after going on day release.

For two months he tormented women in Hampstead Heath until he was caught red-handed last December after waiting in the shadows to attack a woman.

Cyrus was found guilty in Southwark Crown Court today of 11 separate offences he committed during his time on the run.

CCTV footage below shows the moments before Lee Cyrus attacked a woman in her 60s on her doorstep in north London

• Southwark Crown Court heard within weeks of Cyrus's disappearance, there were several indecent expose offences reported in Hampstead Heath

• There were also increasingly violent offences committed against vulnerable and generally older women

• On several occasions while armed and wearing a black balaclava, Cyrus stalked and terrorised women

• His offending escalated into brutal attacks and knife-point robberies on elderly women alone in their own homes

Cyrus came unstuck when police were called to an incident where he waited in the shadows late at night on Hampstead Heath before leaping out and exposing himself to a 45-year-old woman who was walking home.

Cyrus told the woman he was going to rape her. But within minutes officers spotted Cyrus by a nearby cemetery and he was arrested after a brief struggle.