A SEX attacker who won £7m on the National Lottery was invited last night to give his fortune to his victims.

Iorworth Hoare, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1989, was on weekend release on Teesside when he bought a Lotto Extra ticket and won £7,039,369.

The 52-year-old, who is believed to have relatives at Eston, near Middlesbrough, was staying at a bail hostel at South Bank when he bought his ticket at the local Asda supermarket.

His crimes included one rape, two attempted rapes and three indecent assaults. Hoare was jailed for life at Leeds Crown Court in 1989 for attempting to rape a 60-year-old woman in a park.

Maria Hannaway, co-ordinator for the women victims' group My Sister's Place, in Middlesbrough, said: "If he is rehabilitated and truly wants to show some remorse for what he has done to his victims, maybe he should give his money away to the women he has committed his crimes against, or the organisations that help women who are raped and abused."

Hoare, who had been in an open prison, has been moved to the higher security Holme House, in Stockton, to be reassessed because his £7m is enough for him to buy a new identity and flee the UK.