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Twenty years ago, an evil masked monster brought terror to a Teesside community.

Over a 14-month period, Timothy Din climbed into women's homes as they slept, and subjected them to horrific sexual assaults.

He wore a black woollen balaclava as he stalked the Thornaby neighbourhood seeking his victims, which led to him being nicknamed the Man in the Mask.

Din's crimes were calculated and pre-planned. He preyed on slim young women with shoulder length hair.

(Image: Evening Gazette)

And as the spate of attacks continued to be reported, police issued urgent public appeals, urging women to be on their guard until the rapist was put behind bars.

The wave of publicity brought a shroud of fear to people living in Thornaby - but failed to deter the brazen sexual predator.

'If you don't let me, I'll hurt your baby'

In November 1999, Din raped a young Teesside mother in her own bedroom while her terrified toddler daughter looked on.

She awoke at 3am to find a man in her bed. The beer-bellied attacker told her: "If you don’t let me, I’ll hurt your baby."

The woman's little boy had been sleeping in another bedroom, but awoke on hearing his mum's sobs and shouted: "Mammy, are you alright?"

(Image: Timothy Din)

The terrified victim responded with: "I’m all right, just don’t come in your Mammy’s bedroom."

After Din finished raping her, he told her he was taking her night clothes as a souvenir.

Din had an intimate knowledge of the complex roadways and footpaths of the two adjoining housing estates where the attacks all took place.

It was this knowledge which allowed him to plan the offences, target his victims and effect his escape.

He specifically targeted young women who would be alone in their own homes or the homes of friends.

In February 2000, he pounced on a teenager as she walked home at around 1am. He dragged her to a field near the Blue Lion pub where she was indecently assaulted and punched in the face.

The following month Din struck again, targeting two more women as they slept.

One - a 33-year-old woman - was asleep with her husband when she woke and saw the man wearing a black mask peering around the bedroom door. He fled when he realised she was not alone.

An hour later, a younger girl was asleep on the settee when she woke to find the masked man lying next to her. She fought him off despite being subjected to a violent sexual assault.

Just a month later he struck again, attacking a young mum who was sleeping downstairs.

He sexually assaulted her and was unbuttoning his trousers when the woman's cries alerted a member of the family and the man escaped.

The beginning of the end of Din's campaign of terror

Din was almost caught in December 2000 when he was seen hiding in a garden by a couple returning home in the early hours.

He was confronted by the boyfriend of his intended victim, who ripped the balaclava from his head.

A vital sliver of his skin was lost in the battle - providing the first piece of the rapist's DNA.

The long memory of a beat bobby also helped put Din in the frame.

During the hunt, PC Steve Alstead remembered a routine arrest made more than two years earlier.

The description of the man closely matched that of a petrol thief he had nicked in the same area of Thornaby - Timothy Din.

The thickset build, the local accent, the all black clothing and a black rolled up "dut" that could easily have been a balaclava, all tied in.

(Image: Carl Rutherford)

Denials, despite the evidence

Women living in the Thornaby community were finally able to sleep easy when Din was arrested on suspicion of the attacks.

But he when he was caught with no way out, shameless Din still denied the crimes.

This meant some of his distraught victims had to go to court and relive the horror they suffered at his hands.

Din told a jury at Teesside Crown Court he was a professional diesel fuel thief.

The married dad-of-five said it had been his habit for more than ten years to go out in the early hours three times a week, stealing up to 45 gallons a night from parked-up trucks.

But in truth, while out late at night stealing fuel, he was also able to "recce" the homes and habits of women fitting the particular profile he favoured.

Din claimed he had found the black balaclava he was wearing during this incident "lying in the road" on an earlier occasion.

"I stopped the car and picked it up because I thought I had run over a cat,” he told Teesside Crown Court.

The evil rapist started his sentence in floods of tears

The jury of eight women and four men took more than eight hours to bring in the guilty verdicts on one charge of rape, three of attempted rape and one of burglary with intent to rape.

Din, who lived in Hartlepool, was branded "a continuing public danger" by the trial judge, Peter Fox QC, and jailed for 20 years.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life and the judge said that when he was released he should be kept under the closest supervision.

Din's wife was not in court when he was sentenced in April 2002, but his blonde mistress was. After the verdict he repeatedly mouthed at her: "I didn't do it," but she responded with: "Yes, you did."

The rapist's long record, going back to the juvenile court and mainly made up of petty thieving, also contained one offence of indecent assault on a woman when he was just 15 and another in 1991 of stealing a woman’s underwear from a washing line.

In 2003 he appealed the conviction and the sentence - taking it to the High Court in a bid to be freed - but it was rejected.

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