A 22-year-old man has been jailed for 20 years for brutally raping an 18-year-old woman after dragging her from a bus stop and battering her so viciously that she was only saved by her hijab.

Slovakian-born Zdenko Turtak was handed a 20-year extended sentence at Leeds Crown Court today for the 'appalling attack' which had a 'catastrophic effect' on the young woman's life.

The court heard how Turtak may have been high on a 'glue-like substance' when he snatched the Muslim woman from a bus stop in the Beeston area of Leeds and dragged her behind a hedge, where he believed he was out of view of the public.

He then brutally raped his victim – who had only recently left school - and beat her 18 times with a rock, not caring whether she 'lived or died', the court heard.

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Zdenko Turtak (right), who has been jailed for 20 years for brutally raping an 18-year-old woman on March 6 and leaving her for dead after beating her 18 times with a rock, is pictured being presented by Detective Constable Sean Donoghue (left) at the custody desk at Leeds' Elland Road Police Station after his arrest

Leeds Crown Court heard how Turtak may have been high on a glue-like substance when he snatched the woman from a bus stop in the Beeston area of Leeds and dragged her behind a hedge, where he raped her. He is pictured being led from a police van after his arrest (right) and in a custody cell at Leeds police station (left)

After the attack, Turtak fled to his native Slovakia as a huge search was launched by West Yorkshire Police. It was the biggest police inquiry undertaken by the force since the disappearance of Shannon Matthews in 2008 and involved more than 100 officers at a cost of £250,000.

Turtak was later tracked down and extradited to the UK after police recovered CCTV footage from a camera above the garden where the sickening attack took place.

Officers also found the rock used to beat the woman, who has not been named for legal reasons, and a blood match placed Turtak at the scene.

Detectives later revealed that the young woman was only saved by her hijab and hood, which protected her head from the blows of his rock.

They also said that Turtak may have been high on toluene - a chemical found in glue which is commonly used by some Roma youths in Slovakia - at the time of the attack.

Simon Waley, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court the victim had been left 'entirely traumatised' by the seven-and-a-half minute ordeal, which occurred at about 10.40pm on March 6.

She had been waiting for a bus when Turtak grabbed her and dragged her behind a bush in a garden behind the bus stop.

Detectives believe Turtak had been sniffing a 'glue-like substance' as he stalked women around Leeds city centre (pictured in a green hoodie) during the evening of March 6 and in the moments leading up to the attack

CCTV footage shows Turtak walking around Leeds on the evening of the attack, as he apparently tried to target women. He attacked the 18-year-old after spotting her at a bus stop on his way to his brother's flat in Beeston

Zdenko Turtak, 22, (pictured right) has been jailed for 20 years today for brutally raping an 18-year-old Muslim woman after dragging her from a bus stop in Leeds in March and beating her 18 times with a large rock. Left: An e-fit of Turtak based on the memory of the victim, which was released by detectives during the inquiry

'MASSIVELY CHALLENGING': POLICE DETECTIVE ON THE TURTAK PROBE Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen, who led the investigation, said it was 'massively challenging' and the 'nastiest' attack he had seen during his 27 years of service. He said: 'The fact the whole attack was caught on CCTV gave us a really disturbing insight into the type of offender we were dealing with. It was quite clear early on that this was a sexual predator who was out looking for a victim to attack and was prepared to use a high level of physical and sexual violence. 'Turtak is clearly a very dangerous man who on the night of the attack spent a significant amount of time actively stalking women around the city centre with a view to attacking them. 'His repeated attempts were all frustrated, mainly through the presence of mind of the women he followed who managed to get themselves to safety. It appears he had decided to return home when he happened upon the victim and launched this terrifying attack. 'Thankfully she survived her injuries but has been left very badly traumatised by what he did to her. I would like to recognise the courage that this young lady has shown throughout the investigation and hope the support we are continuing to give her is helping her recovery. I hope that knowing that the man who did has now been brought to justice will provide some degree of comfort and reassurance to her and her family. 'In relation to other offences I have investigated, it was on a different level, really, - the violence that was used and then the public pressure that we were all under to get this guy in custody, quite rightly. 'I have been a police officer for 27 years and I can't remember a more nasty, premeditated, stranger rape. I have never dealt with one as bad as this. 'The longer he remained out there, the deeper our concerns grew that he could strike again. We knew we had to do everything we possibly could to get this man off the streets at the earliest opportunity.' Advertisement

Once in the garden, the Slovakian pushed his victim face-down on the ground and put his hands over her mouth to stop her from screaming.

He then took a rock from his pocket, which he used to hit her head with 'full force' at least 18 times.

When she stopped moving and fell semi-conscious, Turtak pulled down her clothing and raped her, Mr Waley said.

He told the court: 'The defendant's actions in respect to the violence he used to incapacitate the victim were consistent with him not caring whether she lived or died.'

The whole attack was captured by a CCTV camera and the footage shows how Turtak walked away calmly afterwards.

After he left the scene, the victim also left the garden and collapsed on a nearby path, where two women found her covered in blood.

She asked for help and told them she had been raped, Mr Waley said.

She was taken to hospital, where she remained for more than a week, and had surgery for a cut to her head.

Detectives believe her hijab and the hood of her coat may have saved her from more serious injury.

A victim witness statement was not read out in court but Mr Waley said it was 'suffice to say she has been left with physical scars and is traumatised.'

Speaking in detail about the horror attack, Judge Peter Collier QC told Turtak: 'Although she struggled she had no chance of resisting you. Continuing your attack you pushed her face down to the ground and held her down.

'With her face pressed against the ground she was unable to scream or raise any alarm. She tried to struggle free.

'In order to quell her struggling you took a large stone from her pocket. How long you had it with you I don't know, but I am satisfied you had it with you for use as a weapon.

'You then struck her 18 times about her head with ferocious blows.'

The judge said that he concluded Turtak to be dangerous after hearing that he had also followed two other women in Leeds city centre on the night of the attack, and had been reprimanded for his behaviour to a female prison officer while in custody.

Sentencing Turtak to 14 years in prison with an extended six year term, the judge said the attack would affect the victim for the rest of her life.

He said: 'The effect has been profound, both now and, so far as one can see, that effect is likely to remain.

'She believes it will affect her whole life, including her prospects of marriage. In those short eight minutes you destroyed her young life.

'All her youthful hopes and dreams ebbed away in those few minutes.'

Turtak also sentenced to eight years in prison for grievous bodily harm, which will run concurrently.

He showed no emotion throughout the sentencing but members of the public gallery shouted 'monster' and 'rapist' as he was led into custody.

Turtak brutally raped the 18-year-old woman, who has not been named for legal reasons, after dragging her from a bus stop into a garden (pictured) and beating her repeatedly with a rock before leaving her for dead

Detectives have since revealed that Turtak's victim was saved by the hijab and hood she was wearing, with it protecting her head from the blows of his rock. Turtak has now been jailed for 20 years for the horrific attack

Police previously released this image of the bloodstained rock Turtak used to batter his victim around the head

Following the attack, the woman told officers of a distinctive smell that she had been unable to get out of her nose and mouth after the ordeal.

Police believe this could have been toluene - a potent chemical used in glue and paint thinners which Slovakian colleagues told them was the 'drug of choice' among some Roma youths.

Users often carry a rag soaked in the substance or apply it to their sleeve to sniff.

Detectives believe Turtak had been sniffing toluene as he stalked women around Leeds city centre during the evening of the attack and in the moments leading up to it.

HOW FIRST OFFICER ON SCENE HAD 'HONOUR' OF ARRESTING TURTAK The first officer on the scene of the harrowing attack was allowed to drive Turtak back to Leeds following his extradition to the UK after he requested the 'honour' of doing so. Detectives arranged for the officer to drive Turtak back to Leeds, where he was taken into custody, and be involved in his detention having 'witnessed first-hand what this male did to the victim'. Advertisement

When the investigating team brought a toluene sample back from Slovakia for the victim to smell, she had an emotional reaction, according to Detective Superintendant Nick Wallen, who led the investigation.

He added: 'We have all had moments where a smell can take you back somewhere in time. That the victim could identify this smell provided us with another piece in the puzzle.'

Asked whether he thought Turtak was high at the time, Mr Wallen said: 'I think there's a good possibility he might have been. He clearly reeked of it.'

In the aftermath of the attack, no DNA match was found for Turtak in the UK but he was traced to Slovakia, where he had fled three weeks after the attack, and extradited to the UK.

Detectives released CCTV footage in an attempt to catch him and the case was featured in a BBC Crimewatch reconstruction.

In the footage, he could be seen wearing a green hoodie, stalking women in Leeds city centre earlier in the evening, before making his way to the outskirts.

Turtak, 22, is pictured being searched by officers at Leeds' Elland Road Police Station following his arrest

After tracking him down to Slovakia and having him extradited to the UK, officers were able to arrest Turtak. He is pictured having his details taken and fingerprints processed at a custody centre at Leeds police station

Turtak is photographed by an officer at Leeds' Elland Road Police Station following his arrest earlier this year

Turtak is pictured having a swab taken for DNA analysis at Leeds' Elland Road Police Station. In the investigation to find the rapist, saliva samples were taken from hundreds of men in the Beeston area of Leeds

Hundreds of officers were involved in the investigation which included the collection of saliva samples from hundreds of men in the Beeston area of Leeds.

KEY STATISTICS FROM THE PROBE Over the course of the investigation, West Yorkshire Police detectives visited 2,644 addresses and took 620 elimination swabs from males aged 18 to 30. A total of 1,307 lines of enquiry were generated during the investigation; 176 statements taken, 98 officers' reports created; and 542 messages generated, mainly information from members of the public. In total, more than 100 officers were involved in the case and the entire investigation cost around £250,000. Advertisement

Turtak, from Velka Ida, Kosice, Slovakia, was eventually tracked down following an international hunt and extradited to the UK by officers from West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Enquiry Team.

He admitted rape and grievous bodily harm with intent earlier this year but denied attempted murder.

Robin Frieze, mitigating, told the court Turtak, who has no previous convictions in the UK and convictions for minor matters in Slovakia, had said he was 'very sorry and cannot understand why he behaved in the way that he did'.

Mr Wallen said the incident was an 'appalling attack' and said it had had a 'catastrophic effect' on the woman and her family.

He said: 'The fact the whole attack was caught on CCTV gave us a really disturbing insight into the type of offender we were dealing with.

'It was quite clear early on that this was a sexual predator who was out looking for a victim to attack and was prepared to use a high level of physical and sexual violence.

'Turtak is clearly a very dangerous man who, on the night of the attack spent a significant amount of time actively stalking women around the city centre with a view to attacking them.'

West Yorkshire Police released this CCTV footage of Turtak strolling around Leeds city centre prior to the attack, as he stalked potential victims. He later targeted his victim after he saw her stood alone at a bus stop

Turtak, who has today been jailed for 20 years for the horrific crime, is pictured on CCTV footage walking around Beeston, Leeds, on the night he carried out the sickening attack on the 18-year-old strict Muslim girl

CCTV footage shows Turtak 'high on a glue-like substance' stalking women in Leeds centre before the attack

The detective said his victim was probably the last female he encountered as he returned home to his brother's flat in Beeston.

'I would like to recognise the courage that this young lady has shown throughout the investigation and hope the support we are continuing to give her is helping her recovery,' he said.

The detective said she was from a large, traditional Muslim family and was not usually out at night but had been in a 'typical teenage disagreement' with her mother.

The effect has been profound. She believes it will affect her whole life. In those short eight minutes you destroyed her young life. All her youthful hopes and dreams ebbed away Judge Peter Collier QC

The detective said she had not moved on at all since the ordeal and pointed to a time when she decided to go out and panicked, calling the police and running back home because she thought she was being followed.

'This crime has had a catastrophic effect on her and her family,' Mr Wallen said.

'She perceives the shame of being raped, no matter how many people tell her she was the victim. She feels ashamed and her family do too.

'She fractured her skull in the attack and still suffers from dizziness, nausea and flashbacks.

'When we told [her] he had been arrested, she was pleased but she wasn't doing cartwheels. She had been afraid that she would be targeted again.

'It is clear that she was the last person Turtak would have seen on her way home, and it was incredibly bad luck for her.'

Turtak, 22, brutally raped the 18-year-old woman after dragging her from this bus stop in Leeds (pictured)

Turtak (pictured above on CCTV from the night of the attack) brutally raped and bludgeoned the 18-year-old girl with a rock 18 times in the attack in March this year. The entire incident was caught on a nearby CCTV camera

How police found 'needle in a haystack' Turtak before he could attack again as they feared he would target a child next

The huge international operation to track down and arrest Turtak (pictured) was like 'finding a needle in a haystack', officers leading the case have revealed

The huge operation that led to Zdenko Turtak's arrest was fuelled by police fears they were looking for a predatory rapist who may target children and could also kill.

Detective Superintendant Nick Wallen, who led the investigation, said his team did not have any idea who they were searching for when the inquiry began.

And Mr Wallen said that once he realised the perpetrator could be from anywhere in Europe it was like 'looking for a needle in a haystack'.

The detective said the police were under huge public pressure for three months as they knew they were looking for someone capable of extreme violence.

They also feared that, because his victim looked much younger than her age, Turtak may have thought she was a child.

'The victim looked like a 12-year-old girl to me,' Mr Wallen said.

'Zdenko Turtak had never seen her before and had 15 to 20 seconds when he made up his mind what he was going to do - to snatch her off the street.

'Not only did we have a rapist. We thought we had a predatory child rapist on our hands.'

Mr Wallen said: 'I thought 'this guy doesn't care who he's attacking'.

'He'll quite happily pick up a 12-year-old girl from a bus stop and carry her into a garden and rape her.'

Mr Wallen described how the investigation soon became an international inquiry, involving more than 100 officers, after no UK DNA matches were made, despite an elimination swabbing campaign in the area of the attack.

He said that when massive UK-wide media appeals failed to yield any breakthroughs the team concluded their suspect may well be from outside the country.

Mr Wallen said: 'I sat with colleagues and we literally went through a map of Europe and said, if you're going to the UK for a better life, what countries are you most likely to have come from. Slovakia was one of the countries.'

The team got their breakthrough when they asked for a DNA search in Slovakia and a match came back because Turtak was arrested years before for a burglary at the steelworks next to the Roma settlement he lived at in Velka Ida, in the Kosice region.

Turtak was extradited to the UK using a European Arrest Warrant.

Mr Wallen said that Turtak was driven the final stage of his journey back to Leeds by the first officer on the scene on the night of the attack.

He said detectives had arranged for him to do it after he requested 'the honour' of being involved in his detention having 'witnessed first-hand what this male did to the victim'.

Turtak, who has now been handed a 20-year extended prison sentence for rape and GBH, is pictured on CCTV footage stalking a women in Wellington Road, Leeds, on the night of the horrific attack on his 18-year-old victim

West Yorkshire Police detectives used an image of the shoe print left by Turtak at the scene of the crime to help arrest him. They compared the tread print (left) to his Nike trainer (right) and found it was an exact match

Mr Wallen said: 'In relation to other offences I have investigated, it was on a different level, really, - the violence that was used and then the public pressure that we were all under to get this guy in custody, quite rightly.'

He said: 'I have been a police officer for 27 years and I can't remember a more nasty, premeditated, stranger rape. I have never dealt with one as bad as this.'

And the detective said it is difficult to believe Turtak has not done this to anyone else despite being 'supremely confident' he is not linked to any outstanding serious sexual assaults in the UK.

'For an individual to have committed an offence of this magnitude as a first offence is highly, highly unusual,' he said.

In relation to other offences I have investigated, it was on a different level, really. I have been a police officer for 27 years and I can't remember a more nasty, premeditated, stranger rape. I have never dealt with one as bad as this Detective Superintendant Nick Wallen, who led the investigation

Officers say there are no serious crimes linked to Turtak in Slovakia but they cannot rule out him having committed offences that went unreported in his community.

They said the hunt for Turtak highlighted some of the problems the free movement of people across Europe presents to law enforcement agencies.

Turtak had been living in Leeds, on-and-off, for about four years - travelling from his home in Slovakia on the regular Bratislava to Bradford direct bus service. But detectives said he left almost no trace of himself at all in the UK.

Working for cash, mainly at car washes, he had no bank accounts or any other kind of official record at all.

In fact the only written record police could find that he had ever been in England was a transaction at a Cash Converters store in Leeds some years before.

Even his bus trips across Europe did not leave a paper trail, detectives found.

Mr Wallen said Turtak's almost complete invisibility meant the search for him was one of West Yorkshire Police's most challenging investigations.

He said detectives get used to serious offenders who are integrated in the UK leaving a trail of their brushes with authority as their offending escalates.

Detective Superintendant Nick Wallen, who led the investigation, (pictured at the bus stop where the attack occurred) said he had never dealt with a 'nastier rape' during his 27 years of service as a police officer

Mr Wallen said: 'But for someone coming into the country like this - we don't know who he is or where he's from.

'It's really, really difficult for us to get to grips with and understand all of the people who are living in our communities.

'I think that was really brought home here in this case.'

Turtak had spent most of his life in Velka Ida, in the Kosice region of Slovakia where he lived in an impoverished Roma settlement.

His criminal record there showed he had been arrested four times for burglary and served two sentences in youth custody. He had no record for sexual offences.

Not only did we have a rapist. We thought we had a predatory child rapist on our hands Detective Superintendant Nick Wallen

Turtak was eventually arrested after Interpol was alerted and West Yorkshire Police began a Europe-wide sweep of possible locations for their offender.

When a DNA match was flagged up in Slovakia, officers successfully applied for a European Arrest Warrant in Leeds and Turtak was arrested and held in custody in Bratislava while extradition proceedings took their course.

It later emerged that he left the UK on March 27 - three weeks after the attack.

Mr Wallen said: 'I'm so thankful the Slovakian authorities had that DNA or he'd still be there and we would not have a clue who he was.'

He said: 'Once we got the DNA match that established his identity there was still a long way to go to track him down and we had to conduct those enquiries very sensitively so we didn't alert him.

'The support and assistance we received from the Slovakian authorities with regard to that was incredible and was a key part of the success of this investigation.'

But the senior officer said it was 'frustrating' there was no Europe-wide database.

He said: 'A European DNA database and a European sex offenders' database - all of this would make it easier but we've got to balance it up with people's liberties.'