In the space of 15 months at least 11 women in Liverpool became victims of a calculating predator patrolling the streets in a black cab.
By 1990, the horrendous crimes of the moustached sex offender had brought enormous pressure on Merseyside Police detectives to get him off the streets. The pervert had attacked at least 10 victims who flagged down his cab, while an 11th woman, believed to have been a sex worker, was abducted and raped in the Sefton Park area while he was off-duty.
With DNA analysis a relatively new phenomenon, senior officers commissioned the remarkable Operation Hackney, one of the biggest investigations of its type in the force's history - eventually identifying 29-year-old Frederick Manssuer of Croxteth Lane, Prescot, as the incredibly dangerous sex criminal.
