A RAPIST who targeted vulnerable women asleep in their homes hopes to have his conviction quashed.

Timothy Din, a married-father-of-five, from Hartlepool, Teesside, was given a 20-year jail sentence after being found guilty of rape last year.

But now the Burmese-born 44-year-old will go to the High Court, in London, on Tuesday, December 16, in a bid for freedom.

He was given leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence earlier this year and maintains his innocence.

Din wore a black balaclava as he targeted slim young women with shoulder-length hair in similar attacks only a mile-and-a-half a apart in Thornaby, near Middlesbrough.

He planned his attacks after building up a picture of his victims' lifestyles.

Police launched appeal proceedings into the sentence given to Din in May last year because they believed the jail term he was given was not long enough.

Judge Peter Fox sentenced Din, of Yeovil Walk, after a jury at Teesside Crown Court found him guilty of one rape, three attempted rapes and a burglary with intent to rape.

The judge told him he must have meticulously planned each attack, then watched and waited in order to seize his "evil" opportunities.

The jury that convicted Din was told that on two occasions the taxi fleet mechanic had found his victims asleep with young children. He threatened to harm them in an attempt to force the women into submission.

He was first arrested on suspicion of rape in 1991, but released.