Clive Barwell has admitted three rapes, one attempted murder, four kidnappings, one serious sexual assault, one indecent assault and one assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The offences related to attacks on four women over a 13-year-period.

Barwell was arrested after DNA testing proved that the four attacks in Leeds, Bradford and Nottingham were linked, and police launched a huge manhunt called Operation Lynx.

It was the biggest police manhunt since the search for the Yorkshire Ripper.

Barwell will be sentenced at Teesside Crown Court.

Lone women

Barwell, 42, of Clyde Chase, Wortley, Leeds, was arrested nine months after one of his victims spoke on BBC TV's Crimewatch about her ordeal.

The father-of-four targeted lone women parking their cars in city centres, abducting them at knife-point, driving them away in their own cars and then raping or sexually assaulting them.

He first struck in December 1982 when he abducted and raped a 30-year-old woman in Bradford.

A month later he attacked a 26-year-old as she parked at Leeds General Infirmary.

After driving off and raping her, he put a bag over her head, bound her hands and feet and threw her in a canal.

Ten year gap

He then watched from the bank as the woman struggled to free herself and climbed out of the water to get help.

There was then a 10-year gap before Barwell's next admitted attack, at Nottingham's Broadmarsh Centre car park in May 1993.

He drove his 23-year-old victim away and raped her, before stealing her cash card and leaving her in the boot while he withdrew £200 from a cash machine.

The woman was then returned to Nottingham and released.

Barwell committed his final attack in July 1995 when he abducted a 22-year-old as she returned to her car in a multi-storey car park in Leeds.

He then superglued her eyes together before sexually assaulting her.

Further investigations

Operation Lynx brought together 60 officers from the West Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire forces.

They were also investigating a kidnapping and rape in Leicester in 1984 and an attempted kidnapping in Leeds in 1993.

Judge Mr Justice Penry-Davey at Teesside Crown Court ordered that those three charges lie on file.