by Keith Hunt

A pervert who carried out terrifying sex attacks on two women has been locked up indefinitely.

Ashley Niblett will have to serve a minimum of seven years before the parole board considers whether it is safe to release him.

He raped a homeless woman who was sleeping rough in the doorway of Maidstone library in July last year.

Less than two months earlier, he tried to rape a woman as she walked to work in the town in the early hours.

When arrested, Niblett, 20, told a custody nurse of sexual fantasies which, said a judge, showed he was "a deeply dangerous young man".

Maidstone Crown Court heard the raped woman was sleeping outside the library in St Faith’s Street in the early hours of July 11 last year when she was awoken by a stranger.

Deborah Charles, prosecuting, said Niblett, then 19, told her to get up and repeatedly threatened to kill her. He grabbed her by the hair and jacket and dragged her into an alleyway.

Audio: Det Insp Ian Rogerson explains how they caught Niblett

He pulled down her jeans and tried to have sex with her in various positions for about 20 minutes.

The victim went to the police station and told of her ordeal. DNA tests showed a match with Niblett on the national database. The chances of it not being him were one in a billion.

He was arrested six days later at his grandmother’s home in Hurst Way, Sevenoaks, where he was living.

The other victim, in her 'forties, was walking to her job as a cleaner in the early hours of April 23 when a stranger ran up behind her.

He grabbed her and put his hand over her mouth as she screamed out for help. He pushed her against a car. She got her mobile phone out but Niblett grabbed it.

He told her: "If you don’t do what I say, you are going to die." He warned her he had a knife.

Niblett yanked her skirt down to her hips and tried to pull down her tights. A woman living nearby heard the victim screaming and went to investigate.

She told Niblett to let the woman go as she had called the police. He then ran off.