"Valentine is an evil man - not fit to be out in the public. He is, and always will be, a threat to women," is how Chief Insp Phil Sedgwick describes the killer.

His words ring horribly true.

Caroline Creevy was not Valentine's first victim.

Despite being attracted to men, Valentine lusted over women - so much so that it drove him to kill twice this decade.

Valentine was brought up in Colne, Lancashire, where he lived until the early 1980s. He changed his surname from Anness to Valentine five days before he was arrested for Caroline's murder.

His large family still has links with east Lancashire. He was one of three brothers and four sisters. His father James Anness, still lives in Colne.

A woman who knew the family well, said: "I'm not surprised to hear this has happened. He was always a wrong 'un.

"It's difficult to put into words but I always thought he was a bit of a clever so and so."

On March 22, 1991, the homosexual was convicted of killing 21-year-old Janet Willoughby in what he claimed was a sex game with a snooker cue that had gone wrong.

Valentine had tied Janet to her bed to carry out his sickening assault after her boyfriend left during the early hours to start his milk round. The three had spent the night playing Scrabble.

The next day, Janet's boyfriend kicked the flat door in after her family became alarmed that she hadn't been seen. Her body was found stuffed in a cupboard.

At Leeds Crown Court he was sentenced to seven years for manslaughter.

After the verdict the jury was told Valentine had only been released from prison two years previously - after a seven-year sentence for robbery in 1984 on an 89-year-old Bradford woman.

Valentine left jail again in January 1995, moving to Manningham and then to Soho Mills.

Less than a year after his release, Valentine killed again - this time Caroline Creevy was to be his victim.

The Soho Mills complex where the heinous crime was committed has 38 flats - Valentine moved into number 39 because there is no number 13.

Valentine was now living in a way which satisfied his evil ways. Drugs were readily available and there were many girls who had fallen into a life of prostitution.

And Valentine exploited his new environment to the full.

He charged a small band of prostitutes £5 to use his bed. It was a system which made him money, and the depraved 43-year-old could listen to women having sex while sitting in his living room.

Prostitutes in the area described Valentine as "a loner", with no real friends. Neighbours did not know him because he isolated himself in a world of drugs and sex.

Caroline's body was found in a small black skirt which she had shortened to fit her. The previous owner of the skirt was Valentine - who two years earlier had dressed up in it as Lily Savage for a New Year's Eve party.

Valentine had a boyfriend called Wayne Simmonds who was 24-year-old and had just been released from prison in early November 1996.

Only days after Caroline was killed, Simmonds had attacked two women, raping one and robbing them both. He was remanded in custody and Valentine saw his boyfriend back behind bars. Simmonds, of no fixed address, was given three life sentences in October last year.

But sexual attacks were not enough to satisfy Valentine's depravities. His obsession with women had already led him to kill once and when his path crossed Caroline's it was only a matter of time before he would kill again.

The 25-year-old prostitute had repeatedly spurned Valentine's advances.

She met Valentine through her boyfriend Ragga. The couple had been thrown out of their flat in Soho Mills in September 1996 and Valentine offered to help.

They slept in his living room, with Caroline using her killer's bed to have sex with her customers, paying Valentine £5 per client.

Ragga was then sent to prison for theft and Caroline was left on her own - splitting her time between Valentine's flat, her family and friends in Huddersfield and her prostitute friend in Bradford, Blondie.

Caroline had made a number of wrong turnings down the years, but her decision to share a flat with Valentine turned out to be the most fateful and tragic error of her young life.

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