A picture of evil: Chorlton rapist snared after takeaway customers recognise animated police e-fit

Asim Javed, 21, who worked in the Dixy Chicken takeaway in Chorlton, was caught after customers recognised him in a strikingly accurate animated ‘evo fit’ image released by police following interviews with the two women he raped.

A takeaway worker has admitted he is the rapist who brought fear across south Manchester – after being snared with the help of a revolutionary animated e-fit image.

Asim Javed, 21, was caught following a huge response to the police ‘evo fit’ of the suspect in a series of late-night sex attacks.

Yesterday Javed admitted raping two young women in south Manchester when he appeared at Manchester Crown Court.

Police believe he may have planned a number of other attacks.

In both the attacks to which he has now confessed, the Dixy Chicken worker prowled the streets of Didsbury, Chorlton and Fallowfield looking for lone women victims before carrying out vicious rapes.

The attacks – both on young women walking home after nights out – prompted university unions to organise self-defence classes and hand out free rape alarms to students.

They also sparked a huge police investigation – codenamed Operation Hatton – after a DNA match linked the two attacks.

Thirty officers worked on the case, enlisting a ‘Cracker’ style psychological profiler.

Police also released the revolutionary animated ‘evo-fit’ image which sparked a huge public response after it was published in the Manchester Evening News and on our website.

The strikingly accurate image was produced after detailed interviews with the victims.

Many people approached the police saying they recognised Javed from the Dixy Chicken shop in Chorlton.

Javed, of Chorlton, attacked his first victim after approaching her at the Abbey National bank in the village in December 2009.

After offering to drive her home, he even telephoned her father to say she was safe.

Instead he drove her to nearby Hardy Lane and carried out a brutal attack.

In the second attack in September 2010 he bundled a student into the back of his car as she walked along Amherst Road in Fallowfield. After driving to Atwood Road in Didsbury he whipped and threatened to rape her with a metal implement – thought to be a meat skewer or knitting needle – before forcing her to carry out a sex act on him.

He then dumped her naked in the street before driving off.

Following yesterday’s hearing, Andy Tattersall, a senior investigating officer working on the case, told how a huge police operation swung into action to catch Javed.

He said: “Once DNA from the second attack came up matching the first it linked a series of rapes.

“We felt students were at great risk and launched a massive police operation.

“A psychological profiler was also brought in to help us build up a picture of the offender we were dealing with.

“We also knew the age and physical description and there was a high chance the offender would be in the [south Manchester] area in the early hours of the morning.

“We also knew he had access to different vehicles and produced the evo-fit which got a huge response when it went in the press.

“Officers were sent out to interview the offender and he gave a DNA sample which matched that from the two attacks.

“It was thanks to the detective work of officers at the Major Incident Team which meant we were able to identify the offender and make the arrest so quickly.”

Javed is due to be sentenced on September 23.