Police in Bradford have been put on alert as a sadist said to be a “serious risk” was due to be released from prison today.

Andrew Delsol, who used to live in Arun Street, Little Horton, has served an eight-year jail sentence for subjecting a teenage girl to almost a week of terror while holding her captive in an attic. Last month a rarely-used Violent Offender Court order was made against the 45-year-old.

The court order, sought by police for only the third time under the Criminal Justice Act 2008, was issued because of officers’ worries about Delsol’s behaviour while he was previously out of prison on licence and living at a hostel in Blackburn.

Lancashire Police had spotted him arm-in-arm with a 25-year-old woman. Delsol had been keeping the relationship a secret from his supervising officer.

Inquiries revealed he had physically assaulted the woman, so he was recalled to prison to serve the rest of his sentence.

His eight-year sentence came less than three years after he was released from a 15-year jail term for torturing one of his girlfriends with a blowtorch.

As well as the secret relationship in Blackburn, he had also made contact with two of his previous victims.

Under the Violent Offender Order, Delsol will have to make his whereabouts known to police.

Detective Constable Lisa Jeffrey, of the Lancashire Constabulary Public Protection Unit, said: “We regard him as posing a very serious risk to the three women and to the general public.

“He feels he has been wrongly convicted and he has not taken advantage of any help while in prison.”

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: “Our Public Protection Unit has made police in Bradford aware of his release. A hearing will be held at Blackburn Magistrates Court on February 11 regarding the Violent Offender Order.”

Delsol was sentenced to eight years in August 2002 after telling his teenage girlfriend he would dismember her as he held her captive.

He was jailed by a Carlisle Crown Court judge after admitting false imprisonment, wounding with intent, two assaults and making a threat to kill.

In October 1989, Delsol had been jailed for 15 years at Sheffield Crown Court for brutal offences against a woman from Bradford.

He held her captive in an attic, beat her with a stick, burned her body with a blowtorch and allegedly tried to make her drink bleach. He twice forced her out of the attic window with a rope around her neck.

At the time he was on bail and awaiting trial for a sadistic attack on his previous girlfriend while he was living in Bradford. He was jailed at Leeds Crown Court for two years nine months for assaults on that girlfriend over five years, including fracturing her skull.