A sickening rapist who held his victim prisoner for a day before throwing her off a bridge has had an unprecedented whole-life sentence quashed by senior judges.

Donald Andrews, 51, became the only non-murderer jailed for life without the possibility of release in 2012 after admitting kidnapping and repeatedly raping a Croydon woman he met in a pub. 

Victoria Legg, 31, of Brighton Road, Purley, survived the September 2011 ordeal but died last year as a result of prescription medication intoxication.

Andrews, from Bromley, successfully appealed the whole-life sentence at the Court of Appeal yesterday.

His life sentence remains, but he will be eligible to apply for parole in 2024 after serving a 12-year minimum term. 

Judges said it was unlikely the "extremely dangerous" Andrews, who has an extensive criminal record including two manslaughters and repeated violent sexual offences, would ever be freed.

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Victoria Legg was repeatedly raped by Andrews before being thrown off a bridge

Lord Justice Treacy told the court: "We emphasise that this new sentence in no way diminishes the extreme danger posed by the offender and the terrible harm that he has caused. 

"In the circumstances there is no real prospect of this offender being released."

But he added: "Whole-life orders should not only be imposed where the seriousness of the offence is so exceptionally high that it is required as punishment.

"Although the order is not strictly limited to homicide cases, the practice of this court has historically been not to impose them in non-homicide cases."

There are currently 56 convicts serving whole-life sentences in British jails. All are murderers, including notorious serious killers Levi Bellfield and Dennis Nilsen. 

Andrews, who was jailed at Woolwich Crown Court in May 2012, could only be freed if a parole board is satisfied he does not pose an unacceptable risk to the public. 

The court heard Andrews "targeted" Miss Legg after meeting her in the Star and Garter pub in Bromley in September 2011.

He lured her to his nearby flat, locked her in and repeatedly raped her during a horrific 18-hour ordeal.

Later he led her to woodland, threatening her with a knife if she fled, and raped her again before throwing her off a bridge into a stream.

Miss Legg suffered life-changing injuries that confined her to a wheelchair and left her on multiple medications for the rest of her life.

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Victoria Legg's mother, Cindy

Speaking after yesterday's court hearing, Miss Legg's mother Cindy, 50, said: "I just hope he never walks the streets again. Let's hope it can hold up.

"It is a shock because really he deserves absolutely nothing. He deserves never to walk out of there again. It is a pity really that we don't do a lethal injection or electric chair because people like him are the people who deserve that. 

"He shouldn't be given any rights because he didn't give [my daughter] any rights. It is hard to believe another human being can be like that. He doesn't even see that he has done anything wrong."

Andrews had 18 previous convictions spanning his whole adult life. In 1984 he was jailed for six years for manslaughter after strangling a 19-year-old. The next year, he was sentenced to a further nine years for stabbing a pensioner to death prior during a burglary in 1983. 

In 2003, he was locked up for six years for dragging a woman he met in a Croydon nightclub into an alleyway and violently sexually assaulting her.

Mrs Legg, of St Benet's Grove, Carshalton, said: "They let him walk out on the streets time and time again. The longest he ever served was eight years. It doesn't bear thinking about."