ONE of the detectives who led the hunt for evil rapist' Shaun Greenwood said today they may never know how many women he had attacked - even if he admitted to the crimes.

Det Chief Insp Mark Gray, who headed the investigation into Greenwood's rape of a woman in Nelson in 2005, said they were not planning to interview him in prison because the "dangerous psychopath's" claims would not be credible.

However, Chief Insp Gray said if anyone told police they believed they had been one of Greenwood's victims it would be fully investigated.

Greenwood was jailed for life by a judge at Preston Crown Court - with a minimum term in prison of seven-and-a-half years before he can apply for parole - after admitting three attacks in Great Harwood, Nelson and Burnley.

Greenwood, 42, of Lisbon Drive, Burnley, led a double life as a respectable father and businessman whose alter-ego was a vicious sex attacker.

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

He was forced to admit the offences after police proved he was the attacker by matching his DNA with samples taken from the crime scenes and only after trying to pin the crimes on his dead brother.

Det Chief Insp Gray said: "If anyone feels they have been a victim of Greenwood and comes forward as a result of the publicity then we will investigate, but at this stage we will not be making any approach to Greenwood in prison.

"There are issues around his state of mind in that he is a dangerous psychopath, so anything he said to us could not be treated as credible in any event.

"The truth is I don't think we will ever know the true extent of his offending."