He was once a civil servant, a husband and a caring son, described by others as well-educated, articulate and sociable. He became one of Britain's most wanted men and described himself as an "everyday psychopath".
For years, Graeme Jarman's meek mannerisms and veneer of humanity hid a terrible catalogue of depravities, including gunpoint rape, torture, kidnap, armed robbery and indecent assault.
When police believed he had offended again, killing Judith Richardson in August last year, they warned the public that his air of normality made him deceptively dangerous.
Jarman has previously served long prison sentences for some of society's most serious crimes. But he repeatedly convinced parole boards he was rehabilitated and fit for release.
Judith Richardson was hit 30 times after letting Jarman into her home
More than 20 years ago, he was jailed for raping a teenage girl he locked in the boot of his car.
Jarman submitted her to a seven-hour ordeal at gunpoint in which he kidnapped, whipped and indecently assaulted her, chillingly boasting: "I am your everyday psychopath."
He later blamed the attack in Peterborough on a troubled childhood - he was adopted and had been flitting between childhood seaside resorts as he jostled with what he described as an identity crisis.
He was jailed for seven years but served just three before he was released in 1991 and married his long-term girlfriend, Tracey. But months later he went missing.
On June 7, 1992, in an incident that bears striking similarities to the murder of Judith Richardson, he tricked his way the home of a young woman in St-Annes-on-Sea in Lancashire.
Having compiled a "robbery kit" containing a knife, rope, tape and gloves, he bound and gagged the 23-year-old and robbed and sexually assaulted her.
The prime suspect, Jarman went on the run only to be caught seven weeks later in the south coast seaside resort of Hastings and jailed for 15 years.
He was released after 10, moving to Oxford in 2002 where he slept rough.
While on licence, he held a knife to a woman and stole her car, earning him another eight years behind bars in 2003.
After five, he was freed and went to live in Stockton, Teesside, before moving north to Consett in County Durham, where police checked on him with monthly visits due to his history of offending.
But he last spoke to his family on August 17 last year, then failed to appear at Consett Magistrates' Court to face a petty shoplifting charge on August 23.
Miss Richardson was bludgeoned to death on August 19 in her flat, which was peppered with Jarman's DNA, prompting a major manhunt involving three northern police forces and 80 detectives.
Uniformed officers across Britain were also put on alert and ports and airports were briefed.
Described by police as one of the most wanted fugitives in Britain, officers warned the public that Jarman's cordial demeanour made him deceptively dangerous.
Detective Superintendent Rob Coulson, of Durham Police, said at the time: "His offending history alone makes him a very dangerous man, and that's compounded by the fact that he's articulate, he's educated, he can be sociable when he wants to be."
"We need to find this man without delay," said Detective Chief Superintendent Neil Adamson, head of crime at Northumbria Police.
"I must stress that we are asking people not to approach him as he is a violent and dangerous man."
Police hoped his fragile emotional attachment to his mother Irene, then 71, would be the key to snaring the suspected killer.
In a candid appeal, she told her son through the media: "Graeme, you need to hand yourself in at the nearest police station. It's the best thing you can do. You've handed yourself in before and you can do it again."
Jarman did not hand himself in but was arrested following a tip-off by library staff in another seaside resort - Filey in North Yorkshire - a fortnight after he bolted.