A child rapist who avoided justice for forty years died while serving his prison sentence. 

Colin Hudson, who previously lived in Croydon and then Wandsworth, was jailed for eight years in July 2018.

In 2015 the victim – now in her 50s – came forward to tell police she had been groomed and raped by Hudson in 1978 when she was 12-years-old. 

The court heard how Hudson pressured the victim to visit his home and then instructed her to get onto his bed and undress before raping her. 

Hudson denied the charge but a jury at Croydon Crown Court found him guilty of raping a 12-year-old girl.

A Prisons and Probation Ombudsman report  was published on Monday (July 8) revealing that Hudson died while a prisoner at HMP High Down on April 5 last year, aged 68. 

Hudson had been diagnosed with leukaemia in 2021. 

On April 3, 2023, an application for early release on compassionate grounds was submitted but Hudson died two days later while it was under consideration.