THE notorious Witton Park rapist is facing life behind bars after pleading guilty to a savage sex attack on a young woman 11 years ago.

Graham Darbyshire's guilty plea to two charges of rape and one of indecent assault have finally brought one of Lancashire police's most high profile manhunts to a close.

And his conviction, due to advances in DNA technology, has finally given his victim the reassurance that he will not strike again.

It was also revealed that Darbyshire, who had a previous conviction for rape in 1984, came close to being caught when he was arrested for shoplifting two years after the Blackburn attack between the park and Billinge Woods.

Supt Neil Smith, who helped lead the original inquiry, said: "I am really pleased that the investigation has come to succesful conclusion and the victim now has some closure, knowing that the person who changed her life has been brought to justice.

"He is a really dangerous individual who commited a horrific attack, probably the worst I have dealt with in 30 years in the police."

The 53-year-old lorry driver pounced on his victim, a 22-year-old Blackburn woman, as she walked her dog through the Blackburn wood on October 8, 2005.

He dragged the terrified woman into bushes close to the footpath between Killiards Lane picnic area and Witton Park, before forcing her to strip naked and tying her hands behind her back.

Darbyshire, of Elm Grove, Cuerden, Leyland, then subjected his victim to a horrific 90-minute sex ordeal before tying the woman's feet together with shoelaces and placing her jeans over her face. He told her to wait ten minutes as he ran off.

The distraught woman was found in a hysterical condition by two passers by.

Appearing before Manchester Crown Court yesterday, Darbyshire, also pleaded guilty to a similar attack in Boothstown, Greater Manchester, where he indecently assualted another female dog walker in July 1993.

The brutal rape at the Blackburn beauty spot shocked both residents and police. In the aftermath of the attack officers went to unprecedented lengths to catch the sex beast, including taking DNA samples from men who fitted the rapist's profile and using a criminal pyschologist to create a profile of the suspect.

However, a 2004 review of the attack by the Greater Manchster's Cold Case Review Unit, based in Bolton, found a DNA match linking Darbyshire to the rape.

Det Insp Jeff Arnold, head of the unit, said: "Some criminals have an offending span that lasts a lifetime. The cold case review unit works not just to solve individual cases but to prevent others from becoming victims of our most serious offenders in the future."

Sentencing on Darbyshire will take place in December