The policeman half-brother of sex attacker Kirk Reid played a significant part in bringing him to justice, it emerged during the trial.

Reid, 44, from Colliers Wood, used to sneak up on victims in the street before restraining them and attempting to feel their genitals, Kingston Crown Court heard.

He struck 25 times in the Balham, Tooting, Battersea and Streatham areas between 2001 and 2007, almost always at night time.

Only one of those women claims she was raped, while the others were indecently touched or penetrated with the attacker’s fingers.

In her summing up on Friday, Judge Barnes summarised witness statements which repeatedly described a slim, athletic black man with a calm demeanour.

Reid’s police constable half-brother, Roger, said the rapist confessed to the crimes from inside a magistrates' court cell.

The officer, who is based in Kensington and Chelsea, said Reid admitted an attack during a conversation they had through a glass partition.

He said Reid was sitting in the cell with a “sheepish” and “pathetic” expression, and suddenly said: “I did it.”

When the police officer replied, “What all of it?” Reid said: “Yeah, they found DNA, something about a scratch.”

However the evidence was tainted when it was revealed PC Reid misled custody staff to get access to his relative.

Kirk Reid, who had a girlfriend when some of the attacks took place, was found guilty of two counts of rape, 15 counts of indecent assault, three counts of assault by penetration and six counts of sexual assault.

He was found not guilty of one count of indecent assault.

He lived in Battersea from 2001, but currently lives in Cavendish Road, Colliers Wood.

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