Louis Collins, a 29-year-old man with a history of sexual offending, was jailed for life at Kingston Crown Court on 16 July 2024 for a series of violent sexual attacks on eight women in London during August 2023. The offences occurred while Collins was on permitted day release from Lambeth Hospital, where he had been detained under a hospital order since April 2020 following prior sexual assaults, including an attack on a 14-year-old girl in a McDonald's in November 2019.
The attacks began on 18 August 2023 with a sexual assault on a woman on an escalator at Clapham Common Underground station. On 20 August, Collins followed another woman home in the City of London, forced entry into her building, and attempted to rape her. The following day, 21 August, he committed multiple offences: he raped a woman at knifepoint in Marble Hill Park, Twickenham, after punching and abducting her while she exercised alone; he followed a woman off a bus at Willesden Green, chased and punched her in an attempted rape that was interrupted by a bystander wielding a baseball bat; and he sexually assaulted another woman he followed off a bus, threatening to 'slash' her.
Collins was arrested later that day at Lambeth Hospital after being detained at Richmond railway station for fare evasion. At the time, he was subject to a sexual harm prevention order that barred him from approaching or communicating with unknown females in public. Judge Simon Heptonstall described the offences as 'a campaign of rape and attempted rape over a short period against multiple victims', stating: 'Your behaviour was the stuff of nightmares for all women and their families'. The judge noted Collins' diagnosis of hebephrenic schizophrenia but emphasised he was 'not unwell' during the attacks, having abused drugs including ecstasy and cannabis obtained while in hospital.
Collins' pattern of sexual offending dates back to 2015. The court heard he had been receiving 12 ecstasy tablets fortnightly and that auditory hallucinations urging him to commit rapes had worsened after his leave was restricted earlier in 2023, though he did not report this to staff. One victim, the woman raped in the park, reported lasting trauma: she 'does not feel safe anymore', is 'hyper-vigilant', cannot go out alone, and feels her home is like a prison. Judge Heptonstall highlighted the 'very high risk' Collins poses of further sexual offences.
Collins was sentenced for rape, attempted rape, assault by penetration, sexual assault, kidnap, committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence, trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence, making threats to kill, outraging public decency, actual bodily harm, strangulation, threatening with a blade, and threatening with an offensive weapon. Detective Inspector Simon Sherlock of the Metropolitan Police's South West Command Unit called Collins 'a dangerous predator' and commended the victims' bravery. The case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police in collaboration with British Transport Police and City of London Police.