When Kausmally walked into a pharmacy for his prescription, he was unaware the staff in white coats behind the counter were police.

Other officers joined shoppers wandering in the aisles and more waited outside in Wood Green, north London, ready to pounce.

Kausmally handed in his prescription for the drug he took for his Parkinson's disease.

The second he confirmed his identity he was surrounded and held. He had no time to react as officers grabbed his arms and placed him face down on the floor.

He was cuffed, searched and whisked outside to an unmarked police car.

Police drove him to Brighton police station and charged him with raping a 26-year-old hotel receptionist in Queensbury Mews.

There is little doubt they had the right man.

DNA from semen found on the rape victim matched Kausmally's profile and experts said it was a billion-to-one chance someone else committed the offence.

Police also had DNA and other evidence confirming he was the man behind other attacks - an assault on a 25-year-old woman in Coombe Road, Brighton, last July; the attack on a 20-year-old student outside the Quadrant pub in Queen's Road, Brighton; and one in Hassocks.

Kausmally had stolen a car in Brighton on Christmas Eve and driven to Hassocks, where he saw a woman and her baby in another vehicle.

He dragged her out and tried to steal her car, the child still strapped in the vehicle.

He threatened to kill the mother but she fought back and he drove away in the first vehicle.

Police suspect he was responsible for many more attacks in Brighton and Hove, dating back to October 30 last year.

Unemployed Kausmally, 48, of Bear Road in Brighton, was a former charge nurse at Hurstwood Park Hospital, Haywards Heath, and at one time worked in a nursing home in Hassocks.

He had convictions for similar offences involving attacks on women with knives.

Last year, Kausmally was released after serving part of a three-year sentence for robbery and attempting to abduct a woman.

Born in Mauritius, he had lived in Brighton for more than 20 years. He had two children and an estranged wife, who still lives in the city.

The attacks terrified victims and major police resources were used to catch him. More than £50,000 was spent on police overtime and materials.

While 40 detectives worked on inquiries to track the knifeman, plain-clothes officers pounded the streets and teams of uniformed officers waited in vans, ready in case he struck again.

Acting Detective Inspector Paul Fullwood, of Brighton police, said: "There was huge relief when he was arrested and, to a certain extent, when news broke of his death.

"While it was a shame victims could not have their day in court and that Kausmally in a sense escaped justice, it was a great relief to the women. They were spared the second ordeal of facing him in court."