M25 rapist Antoni Imiela who was originally from County Durham dies in prison

A notorious rapist dubbed the M25 rapist who carried out a series of sex attacks on victims as young as 10 has died in prison while awaiting parole.

Antoni Imiela from Newton Aycliffe in County Durham died aged 63 at HMP Wakefield on Thursday. The Prison Service said his death was not being treated as suspicious.

Imiela was given seven life sentences with a minimum term of eight years in 2004 for a spate of horrific assaults.

In 2012, he received a further 12 years after his DNA matched the suspect in an unsolved 1987 sex attack.

Between November 2001 and October 2002, Imiela carried out a series of sex attacks on strangers across the south east of England.

Victims were grabbed and dragged into a secluded area, where they were threatened with death and beaten.

He was eventually convicted of raping four women and three girls aged from 10 to 52, with his DNA then lodged on a police database.

A cold case review into a 1987 Christmas Day sex attack found a match between the 31-year-old victim and Imiela.

Imiela was sentenced to 12 years at the Old Bailey in March 2013 after being found guilty of rape, indecent assault and another serious sex offence against the mother-of-two.

It emerged in January that Imiela, a railway worker from Appledore in Kent, was being considered for release by the Parole Board.

As with all deaths in custody, there will be an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.

Born in 1954 to a Polish father, who was a soldier, and a German mother, Imiela spent part of his early childhood in a displaced people's camp as his parents were both refugees.

The family moved to the UK in 1961 and spent time in Worthing, West Sussex,before eventually settling in Newton Aycliffe in the north east of England.

His parents split up a few years after arriving in the UK.