A convicted rapist has been locked up indefinitely for a catalogue of sexual depravity against three Bradford children.

Zeki Hilmi had been out of prison less than 12 months, after serving nine years for torturing and raping a woman, when he vented his lust on an 11-year-old girl.

In the belief she was “vulnerable and unloved”, Hilmi began molesting her, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Hilmi, 47, of Hapsburg Court, Elsdon Grove, Little Horton, Bradford, then targeted a boy and another girl.

“The full extent of your depravity and sexual hunger could not be sated by one child alone,” Judge Jonathan Rose told him.

Hilmi pleaded guilty to 22 sexual offences against the children and one of common assault. The charges included five counts of indecent assault, four of indecency with a child, four of sexual activity with a child and nine of indecent assault on a male person.

Prosecutor Simon Phillips QC said Hilmi began his criminal career in the 1970s with offences of dishonesty.

Then, fuelled by cannabis and amphetamine, he broke into a woman’s flat in Hastings with a knife and subjected her to a terrifying sexual ordeal.

He bound and blindfolded her, cut off her underwear, raped her and kept her prisoner for three hours. He was later jailed for nine years for the attack.

Mr Phillips said Hilmi’s first child victim told how he barricaded her in a room. She eventually went to the police in March last year after suffering five years of sexual abuse.

Hilmi molested the boy when he was aged 11 to 13, plying him with cannabis and cigarettes. The boy told police he turned to drugs and drink, taking two deliberate heroin overdoses.

Hilmi sexually abused the second girl once when she was 17.

Hilmi’s solicitor advocate, Michael Reeves, said he had confessed to the abuse, sparing his victims the ordeal of giving evidence.

Judge Rose told Hilmi: “These are offences of great gravity and, indeed, depravity.”

He branded Hilmi a serious danger and sentenced him to an Indeterminate Sentence for the Protection of the Public.

He said Hilmi might never be released and must serve three years before he can even be considered for parole.

After the case, Detective Constable Sonia Hutchinson, of West Yorkshire Police Child and Public Protection Unit, said: “Zeki Hilmi is clearly a dangerous man and he will now be locked away for a long time.

“I want to praise the courage of his victims throughout the case."