With his dark hair, chiselled features and a toothy grin, Richard Baker thought he could cast a spell on any woman he crossed paths with in nightclubs in English seaside towns and holiday hotspots along the Costa del Sol.

But in reality, there was nothing remotely charming about Baker, in fact hiding behind the suntan and flirtatious one-liners was one of the most dangerous sexual predators in British history.

He committed a string of ‘wicked and depraved’ rapes while working as a part-time DJ, moving from resort-to-resort in London, Essex, Sussex and Spain, hunting new victims as he played pop music in sweaty bars and clubs and spiking their drinks with Rohypnol.

The date-rape predator was found guilty of attacking 12 women, aged between 15 and 35, during an eight-month period in 1998, but detectives believed the real number of victims was 100.

I sat and watched as Baker wept pathetic crocodile tears in the dock of the Old Bailey after a judge handed him four life sentences.

Little did I know that just hours later I’d be confronted by the man himself in a conversation so chilling it still haunts me nearly 30 years later.

Serial rapist Richard Baker is one of the most dangerous predators in British history

Baker attacked victims while working as a DJ in the resort of Torremolinos in Spain in the 1990s

Baker, a manipulative narcissist who dreamt of becoming a TV-star, had been caught after his own brother, Kevin, called the police when he saw an e-fit picture that fitted his description on BBC’s Crimewatch.

Still, it was surprising to me that instead of closing ranks, the family were more than happy to hold court with journalists and after watching his son sobbing as he was taken down to the cells, John Baker invited me to his tiny farmer’s cottage deep on Bodmin moor in northeast Cornwall.

John and his girlfriend welcomed me in with a cup of tea in hand, and rolled out the same tired, rehearsed lines they had told all the other Fleet Street reporters.

Disappointed at the waste of a long journey, I finished the dregs of my tea and made to leave the sitting room, when the landline phone shrilled. John picked up the phone and after a second exclaimed: ‘Richard, it’s terrible what’s happened.

What became of Fred and Rose West’s children?

Hi, I’m Alex Matthews, Editor of The Crime Desk.

It was over 30 years ago that Fred and Rose West’s ‘house of horrors’ was found – but have you ever wondered what happened to their children? Some live in fear, others have happy lives. Sign up here to get our exclusive piece for free.

‘Yes, I’m here and there’s a journalist with me. Would you like to speak to him?

And then, as if he reading lines from a twisted movie script, he began.

‘What I did to those poor girls was horrific. I put them through a hell they will never get over,’ Baker told me.

Then without hesitation he added: ‘I did everything the police said. I don’t know why I pleaded not guilty. I don’t know why I put those poor girls through the ordeal of giving evidence. Maybe I am sick.’

In his next breath, with the chaotic sounds of his prison wing in the background, Baker added: ‘If I cannot be cured I never want to be released from prison. For 98 per cent of the time I am a decent, normal human being. But for two per cent of the time I go haywire and horrific things happen.’

He had suddenly revealed more about himself in 20 seconds than during the entire court case at the Old Bailey and even offered insight into the effects of his crimes and their impact on his victims.

He told me: ‘I know what I have done and I feel guilty. I want to say sorry, but I know they won’t believe me. I understand that they hate me.’

Then – with no hint of irony – he began bragging about his teenage ‘girlfriend’ who had attended every day of the court case and according to him had ‘vowed’ to stand by him.

Despite his apparent contrition, in Baker’s own twisted logic he saw his attacks on innocent women as ‘relationships’. It was a crass attempt to justify himself.

He said that during the attacks: ‘I wanted to ask them “Why don’t you understand me?” I never hurt any of them physically. It is not as though I used a knife. At the first sign of a struggle I would let them go. I could not face the violence and rejection.’

Baker claimed he only realised the pain inflicted on his victims after his final attack.

‘Everything changed,’ he said. ‘All of a sudden everything made sense. I realised what I had done. The girl spoke to me and made sense. I realised what I had put her through. It was horrific.’

Baker was found guilty of attacks on 12 women aged between 15 and 35 in London, Essex and Sussex, in an eight-month period in 1998. Police believe he was actually guilty of 100 attacks 

But in the same breath he casually recalled how he was ‘surprised’ when another victim fought back during an attack on Pall Mall, London in May 1998.

‘She [the victim] was a German tourist. I started to follow her,’ he said in a matter-of fact way. ‘I grabbed her from behind but she fought back. I wasn’t expecting that. She kicked me in the groin and got away.’

But why did he do it? What forces drove him to attack all those women?

Baker himself seemed to be a mass of contradictions. First he blamed sexual lust, then he said he didn’t like sex. Next he blamed it on childhood abuse.

He bragged: ‘I was asked by a police psychologist how many women I had slept with. I estimated that it was 2,000 over my lifetime.

‘Sometimes I would have three or four girls in one night in Spain. It was wild.’

But, giving a graphic insight into his warped urges, he added: ‘Sex was never satisfactory. I really don’t enjoy it. It is just something I did. It was like a drug to me.

‘It was all about control. I wanted to have control over the girl and to terrify her.’

He then claimed he was abused as a child after he and his brother went to live with their mother Lesley Hamley when his parents’ marriage broke up.

‘I suffered two years of sex abuse at the hands of an older boy, a neighbour,” he sobbed down the phone. “He would babysit for us. I was only eight at the time. Nobody knew what was going on.’

Baker – described by then Scotland Yard commander Paddy Tomkins as ‘cynical, exploitative and without remorse’ – claimed it was this abuse that altered his personality. 

He told me: ‘You know what they say, the abused become the abusers. What I have done to these girls is the same as what was done to me.

‘That is not a reason to attack them – but it may help people to understand me.’

In a brief moment of self-awareness, Baker admitted that he was out of control. He said: ‘As a human being I have the ability to tell right from wrong. It is my own will to say it is wrong. But I still attacked them. I didn’t have it in me to stop myself. I was out of control.’

In Spain, where Baker worked at the Hotel Torremolinos Beach Club on the Costa del Sol, the police investigated a string of rape allegations against him.

Two Swedish tourists claimed Baker drugged them with the ‘date-rape’ drug Rohypnol after he met them at a nightclub.

One of the girls, then aged 20, said: ‘He came up and offered to buy a drink. He seemed just an ordinary guy – good-looking and smartly dressed in a shirt and trousers.

‘He even warned us about other guys. He said there were a lot of bad guys and we should be careful.’

The girl noticed a grainy substance in the bottom of her glass, but the next thing she remembered was waking up, semi-naked with her friend in Baker’s flat. Spanish police arrested Baker but the charges were dropped because of lack of evidence.

Baker claimed he had Rohypnol for his own use to counteract his cocaine abuse. ‘It was for me only. It was to help me sleep,’ he said.

‘I would take cocaine to get me through the DJing and the long nights. But when I wanted to sleep it would be morning and the families would be by the pool. It would be really noisy and I could not sleep. So I took Rohypnol.

‘I never used it on anyone else. I didn’t need to use any drugs,’ he boasted. ‘I could have any woman I wanted.’

Whatever the truth of the date-rape accusations, there was no doubt that Baker had a very dark past.

In Spain, where Baker worked at the Hotel Torremolinos Beach Club on the Costa del Sol, the police investigated a string of rape allegations (pictured, Torremolinos, Spain)

In 2016 Baker was found guilty of nine offences of possessing and making indecent images of children after he smuggled a Samsung tablet into his cell (pictured)

I discovered that he had fled to Spain in July 1987 to start afresh. And he had plenty to hide.

That year Baker was convicted of dragging a 19-year-old woman off a street in Bideford, North Devon, and raping her.

He was jailed for six years and his brother Kevin got four years for aiding and abetting.

In 1992, he was acquitted at Bristol Crown Court of raping a prostitute. The girl failed to turn up for the court case.

He moved to Plymouth and became resident DJ at Boobs Nightclub in Union Street, near the naval dockyards.

In 1995, Baker was cleared at Plymouth Crown Court of raping another prostitute. However, he was convicted of trying to bribe the victim with £6,500 not to testify.

He also admitted having unlawful sex with a 15-year-old girl working for an insurance office where he sold pensions. Baker served four years, then fled to Spain in 1997.

Back in Britain, Baker tried to break into TV. But he had little success and without a stream of willing girls he began his reign of terror.

On December 15 1998, the rapes were highlighted on Crimewatch, hosted by Jill Dando. Baker’s brother Kevin ‘shopped’ him to police after seeing an E-fit picture and Baker was arrested at Heathrow as he prepared to fly to Spain.

On March 9, 1999 he wrote to his father from jail. I was given access to the letters and they reveal another side of the serial rapist who seems to revel in the attention.

He wrote: ‘I’ve got my first appearance at the Old Bailey next week. I never thought I would be there – although they reckon I won’t quite make it to number one court.’

Later, he suggested he might be suffering from attention deficit disorder.

‘It is what some people call the ‘naughty boy syndrome’,’ he told his father. ‘It is something few adults get, but can be controlled by the drug Ritalin. Others say I’m a walking advert for Viagra (not very funny really). 

‘Anyway, I hope in time they can understand what the hell is going on in my head as normally I’m pretty much a scatterbrain, but every now and then something gets a bit crosswired.’

Baker had time for one last comment before the 20-minute phone conversation had to be terminated because he had to go for dinner.

He told me he was having psychiatric tests before being sentenced. Baker hoped doctors would certify him as mentally ill.

‘I want help,’ he told me. ‘I want to go to a hospital where they can cure me of this disease.

‘I cannot expect people to feel sorry for me. I don’t want their sympathy – I want their understanding.’

He did not get his wish. 

Baker has served his sentence as a Category-A prisoner incarcerated in Britain’s toughest jails but is far from a reformed character. 

In 2016, he was found guilty of nine offences of possessing and making indecent images of children after he smuggled a Samsung tablet into his cell.

The serial rapist is listed for a parole hearing in July this year and one can only hope the board see through his lies and ensure he never walks free again.