A STALKER who struck at least four times in a week was jailed indefinitely yesterday after a judge heard he had been convicted of a rape five years ago.

Alexander Dolphin might never be released from prison for terrifying young women and teenage girls during a four-day campaign near his home on Teesside in October last year.

Dolphin, branded a significant danger to the public by the judge, had recently been released from custody for the rape in his home town of Crook, County Durham, when he struck.

Dolphin moved to Eston, near Middlesbrough, after his early release from a six-year sentence for what the trial judge in 2004 described as a disgraceful and disgusting attack.

He was a schoolboy when he twice raped and tried to strangle an 18-year-old after he lured her to an isolated wood near the Watergate estate in August 2003.

Earlier, he had befriended the teenager and began walking with her, giving her a false name.

Dolphin, 21, began his campaign of terror in Eston and nearby Normanby on October 13, last year, when he targeted a 16-year-old on her way to school.

He struck twice the following day, groping a 20-year-old student at 8.30pm in Eston High Street and a woman as she approached her home at 11pm.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court the third victim was assaulted as she frantically tried to find her door keys after Dolphin followed her up her garden path.

She said: “I was extremely frightened by this and genuinely believe that if I had not said my dad was at home, he would have followed me into my house.”

During the earlier two attacks, Dolphin fled when passers-by disturbed him, Mr Dodds told the court.

In the fourth attack, a 26- year-old was pushed into a hedge and groped.

Dolphin, of Clive Road, Eston, admitted four charges of sexual assault.

David Lamb, in mitigation, said Dolphin had shown remorse by pleading guilty and not forcing his victims to give evidence, and was keen to seek help.