By staff reporter

Last updated 12:28, Friday, 28 November 2008

The man who carried out a prolonged riverside sex attack that shocked Cumbria has finally confessed to his crimes, police sources say.

Barry Hunter: Sex attacks at Cummersdale

Barry Hunter, who will possibly spend the rest of his days behind bars, was convicted of the horrific assault, carried out last summer, on a jogger close to the Carlisle to Dalston cycle track.

The sentencing judge told the 33-year-old that his crimes were unique in their barbarity and that the violence shown towards his victim was as bad as anyone could imagine.

Hunter, of Newlaithes Avenue, Morton, Carlisle, denied the offences throughout a two-week trial at the city’s crown court earlier this year.

But the former stonemason, who was high on a cocktail of drink and drugs at the time of the offence, has now admitted to a prison officer that it was him.

Police officers often visit offenders in prison to try to clear up outstanding crimes and relevant information is passed on to them and other agencies.

Cumbria Constabulary, which mounted one of its biggest manhunts in recent years to trap Hunter, did not want to comment on Hunter’s revelation.

If he had admitted it earlier, his victim, who has now left Carlisle, would not have had to endure reliving her horrific experience before a jury.

It also means taxpayers had to fork out about £10,000 a day for the trial which was presided over by the city’s senior judge, Paul Batty QC.

Hunter maintained during the proceedings that he knew nothing about the horrific attack, claiming he was at home watching TV at the time.

Hunter was convicted of four counts of sexual assault involving penetration and one of assaulting his victim and causing her actual bodily harm.

The jury heard how he was drinking and snorting cocaine before heading to the cycle path near Cummersdale where he targeted a woman who was out jogging.

He punched his victim repeatedly in the face, pushed her to the ground and dragged her to a grassed area. It was then he began to subject her to a series of sadistic sexual assaults that went on for up to an hour.

He left the woman, whose identity is protected by law, with the worst injuries of a sexual nature that one doctor had ever seen.

She could not sleep for days after the attack and could not sit down for long periods for several months. Months afterwards she still found it difficult to relax and was wary of encountering young men.

Judge Batty QC told Hunter that he represented a serious risk to women and if he had been handing out sentence in the usual way, he would have been jailed for 15 years.

Instead he gave him an indeterminate sentence for public protection which means Hunter will have to remain in prison until experts no longer consider he poses a risk.

The judge highlighted the work of five police officers who he said should receive a commendation from their chief constable.

They were Superintendent Cath Thundercloud, Detective Chief Inspector Paul Duhig, Detective Sergeant Peter Proud, Detective Constable Stewart Robson and DC Amanda Robinson.