Lotto rapist Iorworth Hoare celebrates his 71st birthday tomorrow - as Britain’s most hated millionaire.
The Mirror told how the serial sex attacker who won a £7.2m jackpot while on weekend leave from a life sentence had been granted full access to his funds after a protracted legal dispute.
Hoare has invested his fortune in property, office space and antiques - but spent years and almost £1m trying to avoid paying one of his victims compensation.
Her daughter urged him to give his millions to charity, just as her mum had done with the £50,000 in damages which she won from Hoare after a long-running court case.
Shirley Woodman, who died last year, won her claim against Hoare 20 years after he attempted to rape her as she walked through Roundhay Park, Leeds, in 1998.
The case cost him £50,000 in damages, and almost £800,000 in legal costs. Her daughter Shelley Wolfson, 57, said: “She gave all the money away to charity - and it is what he should be doing with his money.”
Instead, Hoare has seen his finances soar with a series of investments - and because he is so tight-fisted. He boasted to friends that he was worth £10m within three years of being freed in 2005.
Now his beautiful detached home in rolling countryside has risen in value by around £250,000. Hoare bought antiques and paintings - including a Picasso - purely to make money on the investment over time.
He is believed to have made around £300,000-a-year on offices which were rented by Devon county council in 2008.
Bradninch Hall in Exeter also had 45 parking spaces which raked in an estimated £100,000-a-year.
His fortune, initially overseen by a solicitor and accountant, has grown as a result. Yet he still travelled on public buses to save money on taxis, moaned about not taking home the entire lotto jackpot (it was shared with two others) - and his tax bill.
Hoare even toyed with the idea of being a children’s author sending stories, under the pen name of Edward Frost, to a publisher.
He spent much of his spare cash building up an art collection, invested in a possible Turner Prize winner, a Picasso sketch of a bull, and various paintings.
He wanted to purchase a desk once owned by Charles Dickens and was furious that a trust fund, initially set up to take care of his winnings, would not release the money to make the purchase.
He spent his years behind bars studying antiques and it is one of his few interests. A source close to the case told the Mirror: “Hoare collects for one reason only - to make more money.
“He will spend tens of thousands on new sculptors and artists but he only does it so he can sell them at a later date.
“He never gives a penny to charity and moans about his fund, the tax man, and the two other people who shared the jackpot the night he won. He kept saying ‘They robbed me’.
“He wanted to keep the lot.”
Hoare claimed to have invested in a property portfolio which made him around £250,000 a year in rent and boasted of growing his personal fortune.
But he could not drive and refused to pay for driving lessons or taxis. Instead, he had a daily two-mile walk to the bus stop nearest his previous home on Millionaire’s Row in Ponteland, Newcastle, where he paid a £2.40 fare into town.
He was forced to move out in 2011 after his front gate was daubed with the chilling message: “Leave or Die.” In 2006, he admitted he was Britain’s most hated millionaire, “looking over his shoulder” in fear of a vigilante attack.
Speaking in public for the first time since he served 16 years, he complained that passing motorists slowed down to shout “beast” as they passed him in the street and strangers screamed abuse as he visited local shops.
Giving evidence using his assumed name Edward Thomas, he said: “When I’m out I tend to look behind myself quite a lot because I’m nervous that somebody might come up behind me.
“So I tend to turn around quite a lot when I’m going for a walk or to the shop.”
He also claimed that an air pistol was fired at his £700,000 house, eggs and stones were thrown, smashing his windows, and his front gate was set alight.
In total, police have recorded 23 “incidents” in 12 months. Hoare was giving evidence in the trial of market trader Peter Oates, who sent him death threats through the post.
Appearing as a witness for the first time rather than the accused, he denied reports that police spent £30,000 a week of taxpayers’ money on protecting his house.
He said he had to use his own cash on upgrading security. He told Newcastle crown court: “I felt wary when I got the threats and I had to upgrade security on me house. The police advised me about it and came to see me at me house.
“The police did ask if I wanted to move but because me face had been all over the papers I could not see the point in moving again. As far as I know the police don’t spend £30,000 a week protecting myself.
“Because of the Sex Offenders Act, the police come to see me, and I have to go to the Probation Service, but apart from that I have no contact with the police.”
Hoare added: “People shout at me sometimes when I go to the local shops or into the village. Two windows have been smashed, and one cracked.
“Cars go past and people shout ‘Beast’ and other abuse.”
Market trader Oates was found guilty of sending him death threats through the post and jailed indefinitely after a judge said that he posed a threat to public safety.
Hoare spent 30 years in jail from 1973 for one rape, three attempted rapes and two indecent assaults. Between 1973 and 1987 he was sentenced to 18 years.
But his lawyers claimed he had spent longer than necessary behind bars, and he was freed in 2005 from Shepton Mallet jail, Somerset.
Home Office sources told the Mirror that serious offenders such as Hoare face strict rules on where they can travel and who they can contact while on licence.
Licence rules can include preventing offenders going to certain places. Non-contact orders may prevent them contacting victims and their families. Curfews, electronic monitoring and compliance with behaviour treatment programmes may also be used.
Hoare declined to comment when approached by the Mirror about access to his winnings.
When asked about the legal case, he said: “I have nothing to say. I’m not saying owt.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson stressed all offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions.
“They will be recalled to prison if they break the rules,” they added.
