THE sister of Trophy Rapist Antoni Imiela said last night she believes his treatment at the hands of his "cold, cruel" father made him into a monster.

Jadwiga Imiela, 39, said her brother was mentally scarred after being abandoned by his mother and brutalised by his father.

Imiela was born in Lubeck, northern Germany, in 1954, the son of a Polish father and German mother.

He spent most of his early childhood in camps for displaced people in Europe, before the family moved to Worthing, in Surrey, in 1961.

The family eventually settled in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, but when Jadwiga was five and Imiela 15, their mother, Elfriede, a nanny and factory worker, walked out on the family. She died three years ago, aged 69.

When she returned to Germany, Imiela's father left Jadwiga's elder sister, mother-of-four Yvonne, 45, to raise the family.

Jadwiga said their father withdrew to his pigeon loft, spending more time with his treasured birds than his children.

But when his second son became a teenage delinquent, he was ashamed and subjected him to humiliating punishment rituals. Beatings with a leather belt were routine and the angry father would also shave his son's head as a punishment for often minor indiscretions.

Jadwiga believes the family's fractured home life triggered something within her brother.

She said: "Despite everything, Antoni and Dad were very close.

"But Dad had a violent temper, and a cold, cruel streak in him. You knew there was a line you could not cross, with him. Perhaps it runs in the family."

Their father, a welder and factory worker, who died aged 77, once punished Imiela by shaving off all his hair.

Jadwiga said: "One time, this bald kid came up to Mam in Woolworths and called out to her, but she said 'I'm not your Mam'. She did not recognise it was Toni, but Dad had shaved off all his hair as a punishment."

A former neighbour of the family, who did not want to be named, remembered frequent arguments between Antoni and his father.

He said: "Antoni had an unstable family relationship because there was no mother there.

"He was a handful for his father and there were times when his father attacked him in the garden. He was the type who wouldn't care who saw him do that."

He described Imiela's father as devious and added: "He was the type who would knock somebody's block off if they approached him."

Imiela was a pupil at St John's Comprehensive, a Roman Catholic School in Bishop Auckland.

He was bullied at school in his early years there, partly because of the severe haircuts his father gave him. He was also teased for being German and was called a Nazi.

But Imiela, known as Toni to his friends, soon developed a reputation as being something of a "Jack the lad".

One former St John's pupil, three years below him at school, remembers him as someone you avoided.

He said: "He was the sort of lad that you feared - you steered clear of him. You didn't mess with Toni Imiela."

Although he had some friends, Imiela is remembered as something of a loner.

He turned to a life of crime at an early age and began robbing houses in Newton Aycliffe as a teenager.

He was part of a small criminal gang and soon found himself in trouble with the law.

He was in and out of detention centres throughout his early years and served sentences in borstal at Wetherby, North Yorkshire, as a 15-year-old.

One former acquaintance said: "He used to get up to all sorts when he was a kid. He used to rob a lot of houses in Aycliffe.

"He did have friends - but also a lot of enemies. Mostly, he was a loner and we didn't know what was going on in his mind."

Another former neighbour said Imiela had regular girlfriends as a teenager, which was another source of tension between him and his father.

He said: "He did have girlfriends and there was many a time he brought them home to the house and his dad wasn't happy about that."

Imiela had few interests other than stealing and taking cars, but used to drink on the town. Favourite haunts were the Gretna Green, Oak Tree and Iron Horse pubs.

Although his criminal reputation grew, there was little hint that he would be capable of crimes as serious as those he went on to commit during the 1980s and those he was convicted of yesterday.

A friend, who knew Imiela 30 years ago, said: "We got a shock when we heard about the rapes, we didn't expect him to do anything like that."

Imiela developed a relationship with Allyson Pletts, who he met in a coffee shop in Newton Aycliffe.

She remembers him as a violent brute who on occasions beat her until she was unconscious while in a jealous rage.

But Ms Pletts, now 43, said their "boring" sex life gave her no indication she was living with a vicious rapist.

Ms Pletts and Imiela had a son, Aidan, 20, who last night told how he had considered changing his name to avoid the stigma of being connected with his rapist father.

Ms Pletts first found love with Imiela's brother, Andy, two years his senior, who now works as a tattoo artist in Germany, but when they split up she got together with Imiela.

Her relationship with Imiela came to an abrupt end when their home was raided by the police.

Unknown to her, Imiela had been marauding around the North-East, carrying out a string of violent armed raids.

Last night she said: "Our sex life was actually boring. There was certainly nothing strange or unusual about it.

"It is because it was so completely run-of-the-mill that I found it hard to accept he had done these terrible things. He just didn't fit the image of a rapist one iota.

"The person who raped and terrified these poor women is nothing like the man I knew.!