AS Michael Podmore was found guilty by a majority verdict, prosecutor Martyn Kelly told the court of a string of previous convictions against him.

His life of crime began in 1977, when he was just 15. He was sent to Borstal and carried out community service for assaulting police, theft and violent behaviour.

In 1982, he was jailed for 18 months for a number of burglaries and convicted of another burglary in 1983.

There was a shoplifting conviction in 1988 and he was sent to prison for five years in 1989 for two counts of actual bodily harm, one of grievous bodily harm with intent and three assault charges.

December 1987 saw him assault a woman with his fists, and between March and May 1988 he subjected the same woman to violence using a claw hammer, and burnt her with an electric iron.

In 1989, he held a cigarette lighter against the face of another female victim, scorching her top lip, and also hit her with his weapon of choice, a claw hammer.

Finally, in 1993, he was sentenced to four years in prison for punching and biting a woman and administering a noxious substance to her.