THE victim of a triple rapist jailed for life after carrying out "despicable and unimaginable" attacks across East Lancashire today said she was "overjoyed" at the sentence.

And the woman - one of three whose lives were destroyed by monster Shaun Greenwood - wants her attacker's life sentence to mean life.

Greenwood, 42, was said to have led a double life as a respectable father and businessman and also as a "dangerous rapist".

He raped a teenager in Great Harwood in 2002 and carried out two further attacks on different young women in Nelson on New Year's Day, 2005 and in Burnley on February 12 last year.

But Greenwood, of Lisbon Drive, Burnley, was told by a judge that he can apply for parole in just seven and a half years.

Speaking after the court case, one of his victims said: "I am so pleased that it has come to an end. With all the threats he made to me I needed to know he was going to prison. It is worrying to think that he could be released in seven years. I hope he serves a lot longer than that."

She said the attack had left her suicidal and she had unable to work since it happened.

Det Sgt Graham Gallagher was the investigating officer in the case. Speaking at court he said: "Greenwood has raped and brutalised completed strangers. He was a Jekyll and Hyde character and an evil predatory stalker. He had no regard for his victims and used extreme violence. He shattered his victims' lives."

When first questioned about the offences Greenwood tried to pin the blame on his dead brother, but he was convicted after DNA samples revealed he was the rapist.

Preston Crown Court heard that the first rape took place after he followed home an 18-year-old student. He watched her from outside her home in Great Harwood, as she undressed. When he was sure she was alone he pounced.

Louise Blackwell QC, prosecuting, said Greenwood forced his way inside her home before raping and indecently assaulting her.

He struck again in the early hours of New Year's Day last year. He was driving down Reedyford Road, Nelson, when he abducted his 23-year-old victim as she was attempting to unlock her front door. He drove her to a secluded location in Every Street and raped her. She was then dumped on the roadside.

Less than six weeks after that attack, Greenwood raped an 18-year-old student as she was walking home from a night out in Burnley. He got his victim into his Volvo car, driving her to another secluded location, Widowhill Industrial Estate, where he raped her.

Mrs Blackwell said one of the most upsetting things for all of the victims was that Greenwood knew where each of them lived.One of his victims she said she had been unable to live at her home after the attack. Her statement read: "He had actually dragged me from outside my own front door and obviously knew where I lived. I was terrified he somehow would come back again."

Greenwood's barrister Peter Wright, QC, said: "How is it that a 42-year-old man good character, a father and a most responsible and respectable individual can behave in such an unimaginably appalling and despicable manner? He is ashamed of his actions."

He said that Greenwood had been "dabbling" in taking ecstacy and steroids and the drugs had "distorted his sense of reality and responsibility".

Judge Edward Slinger said: "You represent a serious danger and you are highly likely to commit further offences.

"All of these three women have had their lives wrecked by you.

"It is now hoped that as you are at last sentenced that these young women and their families are able to begin the long process of recovery."