A respected family man who led a double life as a serial rapist has been jailed for life.

Travelling salesman Michael Podlubny, 50, from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, subjected one of his victims to a terrifying three-hour ordeal as she walked home after a night out in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

Podlubny, a married father of two, pounced on the 45-year-old as she walked through the town's Valley Parade gardens on July 4 and held her captive until 6am after repeatedly assaulting her.

He then calmly asked for her phone number and walked her to a nearby taxi rank where she broke free and finally escaped, York Crown Court heard.

Podlubny, who was described as Jekyll and Hyde character in court, had raped a 29-year-old woman in the town in 1999 and also had previous convictions for an attempted rape in Leicester in 1976 and a rape committed again in Harrogate in 1980.

The defendant, whom one of his victims described as ''middle-class and respectable'', had admitted three rapes and an attempted rape during a hearing in October.

Judge Paul Hoffman told Podlubny that he would have to serve an automatic life sentence for each count and added that it was difficult to imagine the distress his victims must have suffered during and after the attacks.