THE victims of an evil rapist jailed for 18 years spoke today of their disappointment that he was not caged for life.

The three women looked on as Judge Stewart Fish imprisoned former chef Philip Harries-Jones, from Hurdsfield Road, Stockport, for two rapes and one indecent assault.

The outwardly-respectable married man, who became known as the Portwood Rapist, was trapped by a vigilant security guard, who spotted him after reading about one of his attacks in the Manchester Evening News.

Mike Buffey, who was commended at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court yesterday, noticed an anxious woman being followed by a motorcyclist in Stockport town centre. Remembering the M.E.N. article, he took his registration and police traced Harries-Jones.

The 43-year-old father of one sat impassively in the dock as Judge Fish placed him on the sex offenders register.

But one of his victims, known as Girl B, fled the court in tears when the judge announced he would not be imposing a life sentence.

His former wife shouted ''bastard'' at him as she left the court.

And Judge Fish told Harries-Jones: ''These offences were characterised by stalking, violence and then horrendous rape, which indicated you had little or no regard at all for your victims.

''You have entered pleas of guilty and I have been urged to give you credit for your pleas.

''However, the pleas were entered very late and the credit I give you is diminished by that.''

Afterwards, two victims expressed relief that their ordeal was finally over and said they were happy with the 18-year sentence.

Harries-Jones' first victim, Girl A, said: ''It's the best sentence we could have got in this country, but obviously we think he deserved more.''

And Girl C, the last person that he attacked, said: ''I'm just relieved it's all over. Eighteen years is a long time, but I wish he could have got more.''

Girl A, now 24, told how she ran upstairs to her bedroom in tears when the police told her they had arrested the man they believed had raped her in October 1995.

She said: ''I don't have flashbacks or nightmares, but I do not feel safe in the dark and I never walk anywhere alone. If I'm going out people must meet me at the bus stop as I don't feel safe on my own.

For Girl C, the worst period was the two months between her being raped in October 1999 and Harries-Jones being arrested.

The 25-year-old graduate said: ''When he was on the loose I couldn't get on with things, I was obsessed. I thought he was a complete lunatic.

''I wanted to go out and find him so I could fight him and come off better. I was so angry because what he did was the worst insult to me.

From 1996 until his arrest, Harries-Jones was a respectable chef living with his teacher wife, first at Redhill Drive, Bredbury, and then at Hurdsfield Road, Stockport.

But before marrying her, he had lived in a Burnage bedsit after the collapse of his first marriage.

He was ordered to be given an extended licence period of observation for seven years after his release and will be on the sex offenders register for life.

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