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A dangerous predator raped three women during an 18 day campaign of sexual violence.

Eugen Ancuta assaulted the women “during a two week campaign of rape and violence” in Liverpool after tricking them into going back to his home.

He tried to strangle two of them, leaving them fearing they were going to die. Now ten months on they are still struggling psychologically.

Ancuta, 31, deliberately targeted sex workers in the belief they would not report him, but he was wrong.

Deborah Gould, prosecuting, said he raped the first victim three times, the second one twice and raped and sexually assaulted the third woman. One still has problems following an eye injury and another suffered a fractured jaw.

Miss Gould said that Ancuta first struck about 5am on August 11 when a 36-year-old woman agreed to have sex with him for £20 when they arrived at his house he "just went on one".

She said: "He punched her to the face and body, picked her up and turned her upside down throwing her onto the bed with such force that the slats broke.

"She was screaming. At one stage she tried to defend herself by grabbing the defendant’s testicles and squeezing as hard as she could to make him leave her alone but this made him more angry and he repeatedly punched her to the face."

He stripped her and raped her on the floor and then again on the bed while strangling her. Afterwards he forced her into the bathroom to wash away forensic evidence.

Ancuta finally let her go and, encouraged by her mum, she rang the police.

Nine days later a 41-year-old woman told a PCSO how she had been raped and grabbed by the throat the night before.

Miss Gould said: "She had been struck with such force that her right eardrum was perforated. She had bruising to her face and ears and there were a number of bruises and abrasions to her torso and limbs."

She told police how he offered her £40 for sex and when they reached his home he refused to pay her and told her “not to disrespect him”.

"He punched her to the face and dragged her by the hair into his bedroom and kept ‘cracking’ her on the side of the head. She said he was ‘whacking’ her repeatedly to the side of the head. She went to the window and shouted for help. He tried to drag her clothes off and when she resisted, strangled her."

The final attack took place in the early hours of August 26 after a woman agreed to have sex with him at his home for £50. While in his bedroom she realised he did not have money to pay and told him she had changed her mind.

But he pulled her onto the bed and began kissing her and stripping her. “When she began to fight back he began to slap her across the face and punched her in ribs. Before raping her, he said: ‘Respect me, I’m in control’.”

What to do if you are the victim of a sexual crime There is help out there for victims of rape and sexual assault and other sexual crimes. The NHS recommends a range of services and support networks which are gathered on the NHS Choices website. Merseyside Police have specially trained officers who are experienced in investigating sexual assaults in the most sensitive way. If you’d like to report online, rather than speaking to an officer by telephone in the first instance, you can use Merseyside Police's online crime reporting service which is secure and confidential. If you’d like to talk to someone, the national non-emergency telephone number is staffed 24/7 and can be reached by calling 101. For emergency calls contact call 999 Information on the services offered locally is gathered on Merseyide Police's website. Charities offering advice include rapecrisis and safeline.

She managed to escape when Ancuta became distracted and flagged down a taxi . A neighbour called police who then arrested Ancuta.

Ancuta was convicted of six rapes and one sexual assault after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

He pleaded guilty to three offences of assault causing actual bodily harm.

Judge Robert Warnock told him: “Your motive was sexual gratification and control. You had no feeling for their condition and your attitude towards them was and remains one of pitiless contempt and disdain.

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"Put bluntly because they agreed to have sex for money you regarded them purely as objects for your own use and gratification.

"The driving force of the offences was your need for sexual gratification combined with the disinhibiting effects of excessive drinking."

Judge Warnock said that the victims were particularly vulnerable and that CCTV showed the first victim, whom Ancuta left roaming the street, was “like a wounded animal who was in extreme pain and yet so bemused and frightened unable to deal with her predicament.”

The judge added: “I can detect no insight or remorse on your part.”

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Ancuta was jailed for 18 years and, because experts cannot tell how long he will remain a danger to women for, Judge Warnock also imposed a six year extended licence, meaning he will have to serve at least 12 years in jail.

Ancuta, of Rosedale Road, Wavertree, who still denies raping the women, looked completely stunned when the sentence was announced and had to be helped out of the dock by security guards.

He was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life and will be automatically deported to Romania when he is eventually freed.