A RAPIST who carried out sex attacks on two North-East schoolgirls finally admitted his guilt yesterday - 13 years after his crimes.

Colin Jacklin, 54, was facing a retrial for two brutal sex attacks in Wearside and one in Nottingham when he suddenly changed his plea to guilty.

His victims had seen the father-of-17 jailed for life in August 1999, but then had to endure the Court of Appeal quashing his conviction on a legal technicality in November 2000 and ordering a retrial.

Jacklin, who is in a wheelchair after a stroke in May last year, lost his bid to have the case thrown out of court yesterday. Facing a retrial at Doncaster Crown Court, he changed his plea to guilty.

Last night, police said they hoped his victims could now move on with their lives.

Detective Constable Keith Thornton of Northumbria Police, officer in charge of the case, said: "We are pleased on behalf of the victims that this is over. It was obviously a very harrowing time for them and it will be a relief to know the man who attacked them has finally admitted responsibility for what he has done."

Jacklin, of Clifton, Nottingham, first struck in March 1989 when he grabbed a 15-year-old girl on a footbridge in Washington, near Sunderland.

He threatened to kill her if she screamed and blindfolded her before raping her.

Eight months later, he dragged a 13-year-old girl from another bridge at Washington and took her to an isolated spot where he blindfolded her and indecently assaulted her. He threatened to stab her if she said anything.

Months later, he raped a 24-year-old barmaid in Nottingham after pouncing on her as she walked across a footbridge. She was marched to a deserted field and raped.

Jacklin was trapped after he was arrested for driving while disqualified - nine years after the sex attacks - and his DNA was taken in a routine saliva test.

The test was fed into the national database and it matched samples found in both the Wearside and the Nottingham sex crimes. Jacklin claimed at the time the DNA evidence was false.

He will be sentenced today.