A violent sex attacker who evaded police capture for 20 years after mercilessly raping and beating a mother has been jailed for 13 years.

Kevin Walters, 39, of Hurricane Road, Roundshaw estate, Wallington, was 19 when he repeatedly clubbed the woman about the head with a wooden stick.

Southwark Crown Court heard Mr Walters, who is now engaged and has a five-year-old daughter, then raped her during the attack in her own home on March 27, 1990.

The woman, now 61, was half-naked and bleeding heavily when she managed to escape into the street.

In a statement read to the court, the woman told how she thought she was going to die during the attack, which left her suffering from constant headaches and scared to be in her own home.

She said the court case had brought back terrifying memories and she now saw his shadow as she did in the moments before he attacked her.

She said: “He hit me again and again. I could feel blood seeping through my fingers.

“I thought I was going to die. I remember thinking one more blow to my head and I am dead.

“I could have looked him straight in the eye, but... I feared I would be beaten to death if I did.”

The case was subject to a cold case review in 2009 and scientific advances in matching DNA identified Walters as the attacker.

He was arrested on April 20, 2010, and in June he pleaded guilty to rape and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The court heard the victim, who was 41 at the time, was about to collect her six-year-old daughter from school when she went upstairs to close a window.

But she discovered Mr Walters in the bedroom and tried to run downstairs, but he hit her and she fell to the floor.

He then assaulted her without saying a word as she pleaded with him not to kill her.

She was later taken to St Helier Hospital where she received 21 stitches to the head and treatment for extensive bruising.

The family later had to clean the carpets and walls of the home, which were covered in blood.

In sentencing on Tuesday at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC described the attack as “merciless” and an “episode of appalling brutality”.

He said: “There is no doubt at all that this terrible incident has lived with her down the years to the degree that I think it can fairly be said it ruined her life and was bound to have had a serious impact on the family.”

Mr Walters, who was paralysed down his left side during an attack in 1994, held his head in his hands and cried as the victims’ statement was read during the hearing.

In a statement read by his laywer George Zachary he begged for forgiveness and said he had “disgraced himself”.

He said: “I am now nearly 40 years old and I fully understand the weight and gravity of this crime.

“I still cannot fully understand why I hit my self-destruct button 20 years ago as a young man of 19.

“Please forgive me for what I have done.”

The court heard Mr Walters was a “troubled teenager” who had a previous conviction for harrassment in 2001 and breach of a restraining order in 2002.