On Thursday 20th August, Sky News reported that a serial rapist who had murdered his last victim and fled abroad was jailed for life with a minimum serving term of 37 years.
According to the report, Aman Vyas was only 24 when he started preying on women, punching and raping them. Vyas carried out his attacks near his home in Walthamstow, east London. Following a trial at Croydon Crown Court, he was sentenced for six counts of rape of four women, grievous bodily harm, and the 2009 murder of Ms Samaraweera.
The judge, Mr Justice Bryan, told him, "In the spring of 2009, there was a stranger rapist prowling the streets of Walthamstow looking for his prey. You were that rapist."
According to reports, Vyas carried out his attacks over nine weeks across a small neighbourhood in Walthamstow in 2009. A month later, after an E-FIT image was broadcast with appeal on the TV programme Crimewatch, and he was on the run after buying a one-way plane ticket to India.
His DNA samples did not match with anyone on the national database. A year later after a former employer recognised him, and the police were informed that he had left the UK. Scotland Yard detectives tracked him from India to Singapore and New Zealand before he was arrested back in India in 2011. The extradition process was long and complicated and held over 27 hearings with long delays between court dates. Several times detectives were asked to fly to Delhi to give evidence. Vyas was finally extradited in October last year.
His first victim was a 59-year-old woman and after raping her, he apologised and left. He approached his second victim, who was 46, asking to buy drugs, then pushed her into an alley, threatened her with a knife, punched and raped her. Vyas murdered Ms Samaraweera a month later after apparently following her from a shop, where both were recorded on CCTV. Ms Samaraweera's sister, Ann Chandradasa, branded Vyas an "absolute pig" and a "disgusting, vile person". Ms Chandradasa added she would visit Vyas in prison, should he ever confess to his crimes.
She said, "I hope one day Vyas finds it in his heart to confess and truly be sorry for the pain inflicted on the innocent women he violated. They are the ones that are serving life sentences. Vyas potentially spending the rest of his life in prison is not a punishment but a privilege, it will never be enough."
Vyas has already served just over two years on remand in India and the UK and will be eligible for release after 34 years, although the judge said he may never be freed.
