Sally Anne Bowman’s killer has confessed to the brutal rape of a woman in Spain for which a Dutchman has already served almost 12 years in prison.

In a meeting with the wrongly condemned man’s lawyer, Mark Dixie admitted carrying out the sex attack in a drink and drug fuelled rage in Fuengirola, Spain, in September 2003.

This attack came two years before he stabbed 18-year-old Sally Anne to death outside her home in Blenheim Crescent, south Croydon.

Feb 2008: Dixie gets life for Sally Anne's murder

During his trial at the Old Bailey in 2008 he claimed he found Miss Bowman dead and had sex with her corpse after a drink and drugs binge.

Dixie’s confession to Romano Van der Dussen’s lawyer Rachel Imamkhan about the rape came when she visited him in prison while preparing an appeal case for Mr Van der Dussen.

Mr Van der Dussen was arrested in September 2003 in the Spanish resort of Fuengirola and sentenced that year to 15 years in prison for a rape and two attempted rapes.

He has served almost 12 years of the 15-year sentence.

The rapes were on the same night, and in the same area in Fuengirola, so it is plausible that the rapes were committed by the same perpetrator.

DNA material of an unknown person was found on one of the victims.

This DNA has now been matched to 44-year-old Dixie.

In a statement by PrisonLaw, a legal organisation focused on helping Dutch prisoners abroad, a spokesman said: "Mark Dixie has stated in writing during a visit by the Dutch lawyer Rachel Imamkhan of PrisonLaw in prison in Britain that he was staying in Fuengirola in September 2003 and that he remembers that he committed one of the rapes for which Van der Dussen is condemned.

"Furthermore, Dixie said he regrets that an innocent person was jailed for that rape.

"Dixie is willing to cooperate with any further interrogation by the (Spanish) police if the need arises."

PrisonLaw will now be handing the DNA report, Dixie’s confession and other documents over to the Spanish authorities in the hope that the appeal against Mr Van der Dussen’s conviction will be heard.

The Spanish judge will have to decide whether the case will be reopened.