A RAPIST who won a £7m lotto jackpot while living in a bail hostel has begun a secret new life in the North-East.

Iorworth Hoare, 52, has been hidden by a £10,000-a-month operation, but last night he was reported to be living under a new identity in Sunderland.

He set up home in a rented £150,000 house within walking distance of the city's National Glass Centre, according to The Sun.

Hoare, who was freed in March, changed his name to Edward Thomas and is said to have spent much of his time visiting art galleries and auction houses.

Last week, he spent £9,250 on a sculpture called Large Glass Suit by Conrad Atkinson. It depicts a man's suit made from clear glass, with the crotch torn out and smeared with blood.

Hoare was at a bail hostel in South Bank, Middlesbrough, in August last year when he bought the winning Lotto Extra ticket at a supermarket.

The coalminer's son, from Seacroft Gate, Leeds, committed a series of sex attacks in his 20s and was sentenced to a total of 18 years in jail between 1973 and 1987, finally being jailed for life in May 1989, for rape, two attempted rapes and three indecent assaults.

His former wife, Irene, of Middlesbrough, divorced him and was given a £150,000 settlement.

According to The Sun, the bill to protect him since his release is more than six times the £37,000 a year it cost to keep him in jail.

He has now been taken away from his safe house to protect him. A Home Office spokesman said: "We are seeking to keep his ID and location concealed to prevent the possibility of vigilante attacks."