A 49-year-old railway worker was today found guilty of terrorising the South East of England during a year-long campaign of rape in the Home Counties.

Antoni Imiela, of Appledore, near Ashford, Kent, attacked seven women and girls aged from 10 to 52 in a campaign of rapes in Kent, Surrey, London and Hertfordshire between November 2001 and October 2002.

He then kidnapped a 10-year-old girl at knifepoint on the streets of Birmingham and subjected her to a five-hour sex ordeal ''in a final act of defiance'' just days before his arrest.

The jury was still deliberating over charges Imiela faces in relation to the alleged rape on an 18-year-old woman in Woking, Surrey, in July 2002.

He was also found guilty of kidnapping, indecently assaulting and attempting to rape a 10-year-old girl in Birmingham on November 21, 2002.