A BOGUS taxi driver, previously cleared of five charges of rape, has been given four life sentences for carrying out a series of sex attacks on lone women walking home at night

Stephen Crawford was described by a judge as a "sexual predator" and an undoubted danger to young women.

The 44-year-old had been cleared of five rape charges against five women during the Eighties and Nineties.

Yesterday, at Newcastle Crown Court, he was convicted of six offences relating to three more women, including indecent assault, false imprisonment and rape.

Crawford, formerly of Chilton, and now of Ferryhill, both County Durham, was told he cannot apply for parole for six years, less the time he had spent in custody on remand.

Last night, police said there could be more victims of Crawford who had yet to come forward.

The court was told that Crawford had stalked the streets posing as a taxi driver looking for lone women to pick up.

He offered lifts to his three victims who had become separated from their friends during nights out, before attacking them.

Judge Tony Lancaster told him yesterday: "You are an undoubted danger to young women and a sexual predator. You targeted these three women in order to satisfy your lust.

"All three women in my view must have been terrified of you, and one could see in court how they had to relive their ordeal when they gave their evidence."

The jury was not told of Crawford's background, which included women making allegations of rape against him.

After claiming they had all consented, the cases against him collapsed:

* In 1985, Crawford was accused of raping a 15-year-old girl in Washington, Wearside. He admitted unlawful sex and the rape charge was dropped

* In June 1992, he was found not guilty of raping an 18-year-old girl he had offered a lift in his camper van. At the same time, another charge of rape against another woman was dropped after the prosecution offered no evidence

* In September 1992, he was cleared by a jury of raping an 18-year-old woman in his car after offering her a lift home

* In March 1993, a rape charge made by an off-duty special constable was dropped when she backed out of giving evidence against him.

Crawford was jailed in April 1994 for 21 months for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old.

In April 1999, he received a suspended sentence after he attacked a 15-year-old girl in the cab of his car transporter after driving her to a secluded lane in Gateshead.

In the latest court case, his three victims gave evidence.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said that in September 2005, one of the women, a 21-year-old, was out in Durham City when she became separated from friends.

After accepting a lift from Crawford, she was driven to his home where she said she was indecently assaulted.

In September last year, Crawford gave a lift to a 17-year-old in the Barnes area of Sunderland and, during a five-hour ordeal, she was driven to isolated spots and sexually assaulted.

She said: "I was thinking he was going to kill me or just throw me out of the car in the middle of nowhere."

Crawford's last victim, also 17, was targeted 12 days later, again in September last year.

She was separated from friends during a night out in Newcastle and accepted a lift home from Crawford, thinking he was a kindly taxi driver.

Mr Dodds said: "She explained she had lost her friends and had no money, but the driver said he would take her home as he hated to see a girl upset. He showed her what she believed to be his ID card as a taxi driver."

The teenager started to panic when she realised Crawford was going the wrong way.

She was raped after being driven to North Tyneside, despite repeatedly telling Crawford "no".

Crawford admitted at his trial that he offered lifts to the women, but insisted his victims consented to the passionate liaisons, saying they enjoyed it.

After the hearing, Detective Constable Helen King, of Northumbria Police, said: "There may be women still out there who for one reason or another have not come forward."