A SCOT has been jailed in Australia after admitting a series of knife-point rapes during the 1980s.

Colin Henderson, 65, fled back to the UK after committing his third attack.

He remained in the UK for 30 years until his penchant for wine led cold-case detectives to his door.

Advances in DNA technology linked Henderson to wine glasses he had used at the victims’ homes.

Fingerprints were ultimately matched in 2013 to prints taken by British police after he was arrested and charged with a drink-driving offence.

Henderson, a father of three, unsuccessfully fought extradition from Britain last year, claiming he could not fly due to poor health.

However, he later pled guilty to six historical sex charges of raping three women in their Melbourne homes between 1981 and 1984.

Henderson raped the women after answering adverts for a housemate.
Victorian county court judge Paul Lacava sentenced him to 15 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 11 years.

“Your conduct towards each of the three victims was reprehensible, predatory and planned,” Mr Lacava said.

“This kind of offending is every woman’s worst nightmare. It is offensive, repugnant and intolerable in this society.”

And he said: “I can’t say with any degree of certainty that you will die in prison but I recognise that you may.”

Henderson had gone to the first victim’s home in November 1981 to inspect a room.

He took two bottles of wine with him under the guise of getting to know his potential housemate.

After the woman rebuffed his advances, he held a knife to her throat and told her: “Keep quiet or those could be your last words.”

He then raped her in her bedroom.

The judge said: “You apologised to the victim, claiming that you didn’t know what had come over you.”

Henderson raped another woman six months later after answering her advertisement for a housemate.

He attacked her as her three-year-old son slept in another room.

Henderson raped a third woman at her South Melbourne home in June 1984 after asking to sleep in front of the fire because he was too drunk to drive home.

He had also took two bottles of wine with him.

After he raped her, Henderson told the 30-year-old woman: “No hard feelings.”

Henderson was married and had three young daughters at the time of the attacks, the court heard.

He pled guilty to four counts of aggravated rape, one count of indecent rape, and one count of aggravated rape.

He was due to be sentenced earlier this year but was too sick to attend court, and underwent emergency surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm while in custody.

Henderson was living in England when he was arrested in June 2014. Henderson claimed to have no memories of the attacks but told a psychologist he had been drinking up to a litre of whisky a