THE brother of a violent paedophile who made a secret hole in a wall behind his fridge has claimed he alerted authorities to his sibling’s criminal activities 25 years ago.

Lorry driver Robert Dunn, of Gateshead, has spoken out days after police announced there would be an inquiry into suggestions chances to catch rapist Michael Dunn, of Redcar, were missed.

Teesside Crown Court heard last week how Michael Dunn used women as sex slaves in his home and groomed a runaway schoolgirl and on numerous occasions hid her from police in a secret room in a false wall. He also raped and abused two other teenagers.

Father-of-three Dunn, 57, was found guilty of ten rapes, false imprisonment and indecent assault and is expected to be sentenced next month.

Police in Greater Manchester, where Dunn used to live, said it was working with the Cleveland force to “urgently understand” what information is held about any previous contact with Dunn and his victims.

A police spokeswoman said: “Reports made during the trial of Michael Dunn are very concerning and we are doing everything we can to get to the bottom of this.

“The contact would have happened over 20 years ago and a lot of our records are paper files which will need to be physically searched through.”

Greater Manchester Police has referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Robert Dunn has been reported to have revealed he contacted social services and police in 1992.

Talking about his older brother, he has been reported as saying: “He’s got a real black soul. If you can turn on your own brother you can do anything. What he did to those women was evil. Stone-faced evil. It’s disgusting. He could have been stopped 25 years ago. Once he got away with it the first time he thought they’d never catch him. I’m absolutely over-the-moon that he’s been caught. I’d love to have a party.

“I was in the army when he first used my name back in 1978 - but I didn’t find that out for 20-odd years. He claimed benefits and rent under my name and left me in debt. The benefits agency then took the money off me - even though I didn’t owe it. They kept trying to get money taken off me, that’s when I found out what was going on.”