M25 rapist: Antoni Imiela's care 'good' before death in prison

Antoni Imiela was found slumped in a chair in his cell at HMP Wakefield

Medical care given to the "M25 rapist" before he died was as good as he could have received in the community, a coroner has ruled.

Antoni Imiela was given seven life terms in 2004 for preying on women and girls across south-east England.

An inquest heard Imiela, 63, had been suffering from a heart condition when he was found slumped in a chair in his cell at HMP Wakefield on 8 March 2018.

He had complained to his son about the standard of medical treatment in jail.

However, assistant coroner Oliver Longstaff said inquiries, including one by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, made it clear his care was at least as good as it would have been outside prison and the response to his collapse was probably better than he could have expected in the community.

Mr Longstaff said there were no suspicious circumstances and recorded a conclusion of death by natural causes.

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After being found in his cell, Imiela was given CPR and taken to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield where he was pronounced dead.

The hearing heard he died from cirrhosis cardiomyopathy.

Imiela, who was born in Lubeck, West Germany, moved to the UK in 1961, when he was seven, and his family lived in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

He moved to Appledore, near Ashford in Kent, in 1996 after serving a prison sentence for a series of robberies.

Five years later he began a campaign of attacks - raping three girls and four women in 2001 and 2002.

The locations of his attacks, in Kent, Surrey, Hertfordshire and west London, earned him the "M25 rapist" moniker.

In 2012, Imiela was given a further 12-year sentence after being found guilty of rape, indecent assault and another serious sex offence against a 31-year-old mother of two.