A SEXUAL predator who attacked three women as they walked home at night has been jailed.

Golwyn Mather, known as Colin, was given an indeterminate sentence and told by a judge that he must serve at least seven years before he can be considered for parole.

Mather, 29, of Palace Grove, Leigh, drove around at night in a white van searching for victims before sexually assaulting young women as they walked home alone.

Judge Adrian Lyon told Mather: "I am satisfied there is a real risk if you were at liberty you would not only continue to perform these sort of acts but they would become more serious in the future."

Mather must also sign the Sex Offenders' Register for life.

Assualted

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the most serious offences involved an attack on a young woman after she left Barbarella's night club in Leigh, last August. She was pushed into a patch of nettles where he pinned her down and sexually assaulted her.

In June last year, he attacked a woman as she walked home alone in Leigh, said Paul Becker, prosecuting.

After he was arrested and bailed for one of the assaults, a girl under the age of 16 approached police and said she believed he had assaulted another woman.

The girl had been in a sexual relationship with Mather and, after reading a newspaper report of an attack on a woman on August 3 last year remembered that she had seen him with cuts and grazes on his body on the same night.

Mather was convicted at a trial of three offences of sexual assault and two further sex assault charges.

Before his three-week trial began he admitted separate charges of sexual activity with a girl when she was under the age of 16.

Jeremy Lasker, defending, said that Mather had no similar previous convictions.

He accepted they were premeditated and the women he assaulted were strangers.

Mather was cleared of a further 10 offences involving six other women.

Predator

Det Insp Clare Devlin said: "This man is a sexual predator, who showed no remorse for what he has done.

"We believe Mather may have committed other attacks, but his victims never came to the police.

"They may not have felt comfortable doing this at the time, but we are appealing for them to come forward.

"Today would not have been possible without his victims taking the courageous step to come to us. We have specially trained officers to deal with victims of sexual offences and support them through this process.

"The community is certainly a safer place now that Golwyn Mather behind bars."
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