SEXUAL predator Jason Lawrance has been jailed for life after being found guilty of raping five women and attacking two more having met all of his victims through an online dating website.

The 50-year-old self-employed builder from Liphook, who met all his victims on match.com, was described by Judge Gregory Dickinson as "devious, manipulative and highly dangerous to women" .

Sentencing him at Derby Crown Court, Judge Dickinson said: “I am compelled to the dreadful conclusion that you enjoyed raping women. After these terrible crimes you acted as if nothing had happened.

“Given the chance you will rape again, I do not know when it may be safe to release you into the community.”

The court heard Lawrance’s parents and three children were “devastated” by his convictions, but his wife – whom he met via the same website - is standing by him even though he faces serving at least 12-and-a-half years before being eligible for parole.

The assaults took place between June 2011 and November 2014 in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire, the court heard during the two-week trial.

Three of the assaults took place within months of him getting married.

Jurors were told Lawrance, a father of three, used two pictureless profiles - keepitstraighttoday and straightmanlooking - to contact several thousand women.

He was keen to talk to them offline and despite four victims all complaining to match.com, his profile was never removed.

Derbyshire Police’s investigation began in November 2014 when officers received a call from a woman who said her friend has been raped by Lawrance.

Officers discovered he drove a woman down a remote country lane near Crick in Northamptonshire, in June 2011, and raped her in the back of his van.

He sent another woman a message saying “Boo! xx” 24 hours after attempting to rape her at her Lincolnshire home in 2013.

Lincolnshire Police arrested Lawrance after a complaint was made but released him on bail because of insufficient evidence to charge him, the trial heard.

The former engineering company director, from Passfield, near Liphook, returned to a woman’s home in Buxton, Derbyshire, 24 hours after having consensual sex in November 2013, but raped her despite her “screaming hysterically”.

A year later he committed two more rapes in hotel rooms in Leicestershire and Cambridgeshire.

A match.com spokesman said it had the "most heartfelt concern" for Lawrance’s victims and stressed it had a "zero-tolerance policy" when serious offences were reported.

It had been unable initially to remove Lawrance’s profile because the abusive messages had not been sent via the website, the spokesman added.

Members were encouraged to communicate within the site where match.com has the technology to "spot unacceptable behaviour".