In the 1980s, the West London district of Notting Hill had just begun to transform from a run-down area into what is now known as the fashionable, affluent representative, and was immortalized in the highly successful 1999 film of the same name.
This place in Notting Hill has been associated with art forever since its founding in the 1820s, but from 1982 onwards, Notting Hill found itself with a nasty nickname because a man was known as a Notting Hill rapist.
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Late at night on August 12, 1982, a female lawyer who was hanging out with friends returned to her house and, as soon as the lights were turned on, she was choked by the throat from behind
The man warned her not to scream, and the female lawyer, though frightened, kicked the man between his legs with all her might, with a survival instinct. In agony, the attacker swore to her, I will come back and kill you, and then fled the premises.
But the female lawyer was not impressed with the man, and the police did not find more useful clues
Detectives investigating the incident believe that the man's purpose was to steal, and that the woman's early return stopped the man's plan to steal. And Clarendon Road is one of the more affluent streets in the area, and the theory is credible.
Then a second incident occurred in November, which led police to believe that the August incident was more than just a burglary.
A 45-year-old woman was getting ready to sleep at home on Nov. 10 when a masked intruder pounced on her from the darkness of her kitchen as she closed the door.
The intruder stopped the frightened woman with a knife and dragged the woman into the room, pushing her down on the bed.
He then gagged her and tried to rape her, but inexplicably stopped running away after a brief struggle.
When the detective was investigating, the frightened woman only remembered that he was a stocky man, very strong, and wearing a black mask that she thought was a Balaclafa hat, and asked anything else, and the woman would not know
Interestingly, it is close to the scene of the August attack
A month later, another incident occurred, which forced police to conclude that it was a serial sexual assault case
This time the victim lived close to the second victim, a television worker who was sleeping in bed because of her illness.
Around midnight, she was woken up by a masked man who tried to rape her. After a serious attack on her, the masked attacker fled.
The victim was not impressed with the intruder anymore
During the investigation, the police found that the intruder had taken the money and, strangely enough, two knives.
One of them is a very unique letter opening knife in the shape of a mini katana.
Two days later, the knives were found in a strange incident.
The intruder has returned to the scene of the first attack, and the first victim returns home to find her apartment ransacked
The intruder also performed a strange ritual with an oversized teddy bear in her bedroom — the stuffed animal was tied up and stuffed with strips of sheets, and two knives were placed on her pillow
Police investigations found that one of them was a letter-opening knife that had been taken during the attack two days earlier.
The victim panicked and moved overnight.
The police also set up an undercover team to try to catch the attacker, who believed the intruder was a native of the area and knew the place very well
It can also be inferred that he was at least an experienced burglar, as the man showed expertise in managing to sneak into the victim's home quietly and effectively.
What they don't know is why this thief has now become a serial offender as well.
While beginning to screen for known thieves in the Notting Hill area, undercover teams monitored the area at night and increased police presence in the streets
Despite these efforts, the invaders launched another attack just two weeks later, and they made the most vicious tactics to date
A Middle Eastern woman was attacked in her apartment and, like the first victim, was ambushed while returning home
The attackers waited for her in ambush at home, and while she struggled, she was severely beaten.
The intruders also forcibly inserted a sharp knife into her mouth, and the attackers repeatedly threatened her throughout the attack, claiming to dismember and kill her.
The victim was then stripped naked, gagged and tied with a bath towel, and then sexually abused to her.
After that, the attackers fled, the last in three months.
The attacks were prominent and regular, but suddenly disappeared, leaving the detectives who had been hunting down the attackers into a bottleneck
It wasn't until April 22, 1983, that the attackers returned with revenge. A 22-year-old woman was ambushed in her apartment when she returned from an evening out.
This time, for the first time, the attackers committed total rape.
The media, which has been following the attack, named the attacker "Notting Hill Rapist".
Women in the area have been living in deadly fear ever since, so much so that security door locks and burglar alarms in the area are so popular.
Detectives have begun to investigate the rapist again, and from the information currently available, it can be inferred that:
He was strong and strong, sounding like a Native of London.
He usually wears dark sportswear and training shoes, and wears a Balaclafa hat.
He is not afraid to use violence and is sexually perverted.
The man was almost certainly an experienced local thief, but he had no forensic awareness.
Semen samples had been taken from rapist victims, but DNA testing was not possible at the time.
But a broad comparison of matching blood types is possible, and when questioning and interviewing suspects and local thieves, some people who fit the general description that detectives must continue are asked to provide blood samples.
Months passed without any attacks, and by January 1984, the investigation was over.
Detectives speculate that the rapist may have died or moved away, but detectives believe the most likely reason to stop the attack is that the rapist was imprisoned for another crime.
There were no further attacks for more than three years, and then in May 1987, the Notting Hill rapists returned.
If the attacks of 1982 and '83 had become out of reach in the memories of notting hill residents, they were reminded in the most horrific way on May 4, 1987.
Like the female lawyer in the attack years ago, the woman was also attacked when she returned home
The woman tried to stop the intruder by saying she was infected with HIV, but the person who attacked her said grimly:
"Me too".
The rapist held her down with a knife, stripped the victim of her clothes, tied her up and blocked her, and then brutally raped her.
The victim, like others who were attacked, didn't have much of a description of the intruder — chubby, intense, violent, with a London accent.
Nothing seemed to have been taken from the apartment, but the police found an important clue that they managed to collect the imprint of the No. 9 training shoe from the flat workbench under the window where the rapist had entered.
The rapist launched another attack on July 28, 1987.
A 34-year-old woman who had just ended her relationship with her boyfriend asked to leave after a heated argument.
Just minutes after her boyfriend left, the rapist broke into her home and brutally attacked her. He threatened her with a knife that now had his trademark pattern, and then tied her up with a scarf and belt.
When he raped her, between threats of violence, the rapist asked if the reason she ended up with her boyfriend was because he wasn't very good at sex. It turned out that the rapist had been eavesdropping from the back window of the woman's home.
At this point, the Detective Chief Superintendent was tasked with hunting down the Notting Hill rapists and decided to adopt a strategy of deploying plainclothes officers in strategic locations in gardens and parks.
Police judged the rapist to be a local thief and prowler who would wander around and spy on women walking alone
Perhaps the increase in police scared away rapists, because the attacks were once again calm
But in December 1987, a resident of an apartment near Lansdowne Road saw a man crouching in the bushes behind the block.
The resident's alarm bell rang, and before he knew it, a plainclothes policeman nearby had spotted the man, who had rushed into the garden and caught the fleeing wanderer.
As the man climbed a wall, the pursuing officer grabbed him by the leg. But the man kicked the police down as he walked through the garden and through the children's play area.
Two months later, on February 16, 1988, the same man reappeared in the garden behind Ladbroke Crescent at midnight, once again trying to escape by avoiding police blankets.
Many high-profile pursuits were solved not through excellent detective work, but through the accurate hunch of the officers.
A famous example is the capture of Peter Satcliffe, a Yorkshire ripper; or the capture of John Reginald Halliday Christie when he was hunted down for finding a body at 10 Rylington Square. Due to a hunch from Officer Hamilton, the Notting Hill rapist was finally brought to justice.
Officer Hamilton had a hunch that the rapist detective was looking for a 37-year-old local petty thief and violent thug, Tony McLean
McLean fits the general description given by the victims — he's a strong fitness fanatic, passionate about bodybuilding and weight training, and prone to violence
In addition, Maclean's timeline seems to coincide with the rapist's timeline.
When rapists stopped in 1983, it was exactly the same as the four-year prison sentence McLean began sentencing for brutally attacking a youth with a baseball bat.
He was released in 1987 — around the time the attack began again.
Maclean gave a routine interview to detectives in 1983 and volunteered to provide blood samples. Hamilton decided to express his doubts to DCS Hutchison.
But curiously, the rapist's blood was different from Maclean's, and Maclean's suspicions seemed to have been cleared
In addition, Home Office documents show that Maclean was released from prison in June 1987 — making it impossible for him to have attacked a woman in May 1987.
But Hamilton was convinced of his suspicions and immediately set about the investigation
Officer Hamilton decided to go to Maclean's apartment for further questioning, but Maclean was not home, so the officer left him a note asking him to go to Notting Hill Police Station.
During the interrogation, Maclean seemed confident and fearless, then answered all the questions the officer had asked him, even showing Hamilton his penis to prove he couldn't be a rapist.
Maclean's penis was badly scarred by a childhood accident after he fell on broken glass, and when he showed it to PC Hamilton, he exclaimed: "That's why I'm not a rapist".
Still, no matter what the computer said, Hamilton was more convinced than ever that the man sitting across from him was the Notting Hill rapist.
A few days later, Hamilton's idea was confirmed, and his suspicions were not unfounded.
The forensic examiner contacted him and told him that the computer operator had mistakenly entered the letters when typing the details of Maclean's blood on the computer, and that a simple typing error could have huge consequences.
After checking with the Home Office to confirm Macleen's release date in prison, another clerical error was discovered —Maclean was actually released in January 1987, but the typist entered JUN instead of JAN.
The evidence was complete, the police issued a warrant, and Maclean was charged with a series of crimes, including three rapes, two attempted rapes, burglary and robbery with intent to rape.
But he pleaded not guilty to all charges, meaning the victim would be forced to be cross-examined. The jury listened to the emotional and disgusting accounts of several women who were attacked, and their powerful testimony impressed the jury.
But the miracle of forensic science provides the strongest evidence. In 1989, DNA testing was accepted as conclusive evidence by the English courts, and Professor Alex Jeffries, who pioneered and perfected the techniques of DNA analysis, testified himself at McLean's trial.
McLean was convicted of all charges and remained cold and heartless when sentenced to three consecutive years in prison, plus 12 years of attempted rape, indecency and burglary.
London City Recording Engineer Sir James Miskin (QC) told him:
"You are an outright threat to women, and these three rapes are absolutely illegal."
After Maclean was convicted, his two victims, who testified in court, hugged each other and cried. Hamilton, who led the hunt for him, said:
"I'm glad this rapist has left the streets. While patrolling the streets, he saw the girls and realized how easy it was to rape them. As we continued to observe, we found the girls undressing in front of the window. Maclean would see the same thing and he was tempted."
Maclean, a fitness fanatic, would go out for a jog, running half a mile from his apartment to his hunting grounds
At first, the goal was to steal the property in the basement and the first floor, and then slowly began to have different ideas about the women. The image below shows the vicinity of Macleen's home and the location of the attack:
Sometimes, he would observe an apartment for days in a row, and sometimes he would peek outside at women undressing.
When he learns about the daily life of his target victim, he breaks in before the victim returns home. Then he would wait in the dark for his victims to come home.
Wearing gloves, masks, and always holding knives to threaten and intimidate victims, using cloth strips to block and restrain victims, McLean would rape or molest them and then flee
Psychologists claim that although Maclean is a married father of two children, his desire to rape stems from feelings of sexual inadequacy.
It is understood that due to the damage caused to his penis by childhood accidents, McLean has had difficulty having sex with women throughout his life.
To prove his masculinity, and more than anyone else, Maclean began bodybuilding and weightlifting training, a trait common to sex killers and rapists.
Maclean targets wealthy women with careers who, in his view, do not belong to his same class and represent a way of life that he can never participate in.
Hatred and jealousy drove him to become aggressive and to commit rape. Slowly, his attacks became more and more brutal, and although the physical injuries varied, the psychological cruelty and terror he inflicted on his victims were always the same.
"McLean is a twisted pervert who likes to intimidate and humiliate young women. He chose to do professional type jobs because they made him feel inferior. He was a very dangerous man. I'm sure if we hadn't caught him at the time, he would have continued murdering in a very short time" — Detective Chief Superintendent James Hutchesson
Hamilton's behavior has received a lot of praise, and if it weren't for his hunch, to this day, a dangerous rapist might still be wandering the streets, and he might even have become a dangerous killer.