BBC Correspondent John Thorne: This is an unprecedented ruling

In a legal first, a ruling by a stipendiary magistrate in Manchester restricts the movements of 35-year-old Michael Gordon, dubbed the "Bedsit Beast", in a large part of the city at night.

Police had applied for the Sex Offenders Order against Mr Gordon - jailed in 1990 for the knifepoint rapes of two female students - after they saw him prowling the streets of the bedsit areas of the city where he committed his crimes.

Michael Gordon: Subject to a curfew

New laws allowing a court to make the order only came into force at the beginning of December.

After hearing evidence from eight police officers, some of whom said they had seen Mr Gordon peering through the windows of bedsitters at night and then running away shoeless on tip-toe, magistrate Alan Berg said he had "no hesitation" in making the order.

"He is a high-risk, unremorseful serial rapist who is still in denial of his offences," the magistrate said of Mr Gordon, who was in court.

The civil order, which also bans him from the buildings and grounds of Manchester's three universities, is set to run for eight years.

If Mr Gordon violates the order, he can be brought before a Crown Court and jailed for up to five years.

'Cool and calculating'

His own probation officer, Penny Jones, described Mr Gordon as "cool and calculating" and of the "highest risk".

Mr Berg said: "Taking into account the background of this matter and his behaviour I have no hesitation in concluding an order is necessary in protecting the public from serious harm from him."