A rapist who was freed from jail only to strike again will be eligible to apply for parole in just four years time.

Clifford Church was yesterday handed a life sentence for a sickening and prolonged sex attack in which he pounced on a married woman as she walked home and repeatedly raped her.

Church, who was described as a "sexual predator", will be able to apply for release within a minimum period of four years, according to the sentencing judge.

Last night Cleveland police and the Crown Prosecution Service said they were "considering all the issues" arising from the case as a result of the outcome and it is thought they could challenge any early release.

Church, 42, of Lincoln Road, Redcar, was jailed at Teesside Crown Court after pleading guilty to four counts of rape, two of attempted rape, sexual assault, assault by penetration and making a threat to kill.

A registered sex offender, he had previously been locked up for eight years for raping a 16-year-old and forcing her to perform a sex act on him on waste ground in an area of Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, known as The Burn in October 1996.

He was released from jail in 2002.

Church, who was flanked by three security guards in the dock, had been working at the British Heart Foundation shop in Redcar High Street in the months leading up to his latest attack on October 23 last year, it emerged.

Prosecuting, Gavin Doig said his victim had been walking home along The Stray in Redcar after leaving the Top Deck nightclub at about 2.10am.

Church approached her and suggested they share a taxi. When she refused and told him to leave her alone he took hold of her and after a struggle dragged her onto a grassed area.

There he pushed her to the ground and subjected her to a prolonged sexual assault.

During the attack the woman got up and ran away, but slipped and was caught by Church who grabbed her by her hair and bundled her over a wall.

He told his traumatised victim: "You know I am going to kill you. I have been to prison and I am going to do life for you." Church then continued his sex attack, which lasted more than half-an-hour, before eventually the partially clothed woman escaped and managed to raise the alarm.

The court was told that Church had actually been stopped by police and given a warning earlier that night for urinating in the street.

Police were able to quickly arrest him at his home and recovered clothing which matched the description they had been given by the victim. Eric Elliott, mitigating, said he had an addiction to drink which led him to be a Jekyll and Hyde character.

He said: "The monster in him comes out and he behaves as he did on this occasion.

"His conduct would fill any right minded person with revulsion."

Jailing him, Judge Peter Armstrong said the attack was "every woman's nightmare".

He said: "You subjected a lady who was walking home and basically minding her own business to the most appalling sexual attack."

The judge said Church posed a very great danger to women and it would be sometime before he could be safely released into the community, although exactly when that would be was a matter for the authorities.

Afterwards Detective Sergeant Nick Owen, of Cleveland police, said the case was the most harrowing he had worked on in 16 years. He said: "Clifford Church is a sexual predator and the streets are a safer place now that he is back behind bars.

"This is a man who has twice carried out vicious sexual attacks on women who were complete strangers to him with devastating consequences for them."

Of the sentence passed he said: "Life does not mean always mean life in the judicial system and in this case the minimum period before he can apply for release will be four years.

"Hopefully when the parole board makes a decision over him they will take into account all the circumstances of this horrific attack and Church's previous conviction."