Aman Vyas

3 offences

What the court heard

Sentencing Remarks 1. Aman Vyas, you have been found guilty of the rape and murder of Michelle Samaraweera, your fourth victim, the inflicting of grievous bodily harm with intent and rape of your third victim, multiple rapes of your second victim, following your earlier admission of guilt to the rape of your first victim, all in 2009, when you were 24, and a young Asian man from India living in Walthamstow. 2. I must now sentence you for this series of increasingly violent rapes against lone women very much older than you, late at night, that culminated in your rape and murder of Michelle Samaraweera. 3. In the spring of 2009, there was a stranger rapist prowling the streets of Walthamstow in East London looking for his prey. You were that rapist. This series of increasingly violent rapes, which occurred over a relatively short period of time, all took place late at night on women close to both where you and they lived in Walthamstow. This series of rapes involved four female victims, the last of whom died in the course of your attack upon her. 4. I have changed the names of your first three victims who, as victims of rape, are entitled to anonymity. However it would be an injustice to them if they were reduced to anonymised letters or simply referred to as victims 1, 2 and 3. They are individuals who lived through the trauma of your offending, and who have had to live with the consequences of your offending for over ten years and will no doubt continue to do so for the rest of their lives. I will refer to them as April, May and June. 5. Your semen was found either in or on your victims, or on items close to each of your victims, but your DNA profile was not on the UK database. However, your first victim, April, had produced an E-Fit which was a remarkable likeness of you, and you had also been captured on CCTV in the Somerfield petrol station shop that Michelle Samaraweera had just been shopping in, near to where she was to die at your hands. The incidents later featured on Crimewatch. The net was closing in around you. Just two days later you fled to India via Dubai on a one-way ticket bought for cash just hours before, with you giving your work address in Westminster no doubt to avoid any reference to Walthamstow where you lived, and where you knew the police were undertaking door-to-door DNA testing of all Asian men in the area with a view to catching the rapist before he struck again. 6. You might have evaded justice forever but for the fact that…

Around this case

• Croydon Crown Court
• Prosecuted by Crown Prosecution Service
• Investigated by Metropolitan Police Service