A serial sex offender who repeatedly raped a mother while her children slept in the next room of her Thornton Heath home is facing jail.

Pierre Antoine Bate, 42, broke into the victim's house in the early hours of the morning in July 1996 and threatened to harm her children if she screamed for help.

The Californian, from Santa Barbara, was extradited from the US in February this year after Metropolitan Police cold-case investigators used modern DNA testing to link him to the crime.

Following a two-week trial he was found guilty today of eight counts of rape and one count of burglary with intent to rape. He will be sentenced next month.

Bate had already been extradited back to the UK in 2008 for trial following a 2004 cold-case investigation into a sex offence committed in Kentish Town in 1995, for which he served 26 months for jail.

DNA samples taken following that offence that led detectives to link him to the Thornton Heath rape.

Just after 1am on July 22, 1996, the victim woke up to find Bate in her bedroom staring at her.

To control her he claimed a friend of his was with her children in the room next door.

He then placed his arm across her throat and raped and indecently assaulted her several times, over the course of 90 minutes.

The victim was able to call police after he left.

Detective Sergeant Karen Bradley, of the Met’s sexual offences, exploitation and child abuse command, said: "Thanks to developments in forensics and our commitment to identify and arrest people no matter how much time has passed, Bate is today facing a long time in prison.

“He had thought that he wouldn't get caught, despite moving to the US we brought him back to London to face justice.

“He is a dangerous man, who broke into the house that night with the sole intention of committing rape.

"The victim has shown huge courage in supporting our investigation and the court case, after a vicious and prolonged attack in her home with her children asleep close by."

Bate will be sentenced on August 12.

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