WHAT makes a rapist? Professor of Psychology Dr Stavros Stavrou has described the brutal attack on the British tourist last week as a result of a man who has no conscience.

Dr Stavrou based at Intercollege, Nicosia, 60km away from the scene of the attack, said the man was probably physically abused as a child and the violence he experience stopped the process of his developing a conscience.

"We build our conscience during childhood," he said.

"This is a person who has been physically abused as a child by his mother and who has developed an intense hate for women.

"But the most important thing," Dr Stavrou said, "is that the man's violent childhood resulted in the lack of conscience, which ultimately leads him to perform acts of sadism."

Dr Stavrou said that because the rapist probably experienced pain from his mother, he was trying to induce the same pain on his female victims without being actively aware that what he was doing was wrong.

"This man is mentally ill, he is a psychopath," Dr Stavrou said.

"He is not actively aware he is doing something wrong.

"His conscience does not work, he does not feel regret, he doesn't realise he has done something wrong."