British molester had 'tramp' pose

LONDON - Outwardly, Anthony De Boise was a respected husband and father, an impeccably dressed architect who held a senior position with a local authority. But the man known to his friends and colleagues as "Mr Nice Guy" led a bizarre double life.

Discarding the smart suit he wore to work, De Boise would dress as a tramp and lie in wait for schoolgirls at woods and beauty spots around south London and Surrey, where he would attack and sexually assault his victims. Sometimes at knifepoint, he would force his victims to strip, threatening to rape or kill them.

Wearing dark glasses and disguising his educated voice, De Boise fooled the massive police manhunt into thinking that the man who carried out the string of brutal attacks between 1989 and 1996 was a homeless down-and-out.

After his attacks stopped, De Boise believed he had escaped capture. But when his sister accused him of plundering their father's estate, a police DNA sample found a match with traces from the attacks.

Yesterday, De Boise, who admitted six indecent assaults on girls aged 13 to 16, was jailed for 13 years.

He claimed his attacks were due to a change in the medication he took for diabetes.

- INDEPENDENT