A TOP former fire chief has admitted showing no pity after raping a defenceless teenager in a park.

George Heyes had followed the 18-year-old girl after spotting her coming out of a public house as he drove from his fiancee's home, and brutally attacked her as she sobbed.

Heyes, an Acting Assistant Divisional Officer, also confessed to molesting another teenage girl four months earlier in a copycat attack. But he blamed the offences on stress caused by the break-up of his marriage and the death of his father.

"I had gone through a traumatic period with my dad dying and I blamed myself for that. I also got divorced," he told a jury at Manchester Crown Court.

But 44-year-old Heyes denied he was the man responsible for four other sex attacks during an 18-month period in 1996 and 1997.

"In the two offences I have admitted I was obviously there, but I know for a fact I have not done the others," he added. The prosecution has alleged all six offences in the Heywood, Harpurhey and Wythenshawe areas of Manchester could be linked to the same man by a number of similar features.

Heyes was finally trapped and positively identified as the man responsible for one rape and one indecent assault by DNA evidence, which showed there was only a one in a billion chance it was another man.

Yesterday Heyes, of Bamburgh Close, Radcliffe, told the jury he was responsible for those two offences, but denied the other four attacks.

He admitted he had denied all the offences when quizzed by police, but said he was only protecting his mother, his fiancee, and his 11-year-old son.

"I didn't want them to know I had done such bad deeds," he said. He told prosecutor Susan Klonin that he decided to admit two offences because he did not want to lie on oath "and use God's name".

Heyes said he became a Christian in 1998, and had confessed to two attacks after telling family and friends of his guilt.

But Miss Klonin described Heyes as "a phoney", and said the rape he admitted occurred when he was travelling back home after spending the weekend with his fiancee in the Potteries.

"You are the same man who didn't have one feeling of remorse or pity for an 18-year-old sobbing total stranger," said Miss Klonin.

He admitted showing the girl "no pity" for raping her as she sobbed, and said he had never apologised to either victim.

Heyes denied he only confessed to the two attacks because the evidence was overwhelming. "I have done this and I am guilty of them, and I know I am going to jail for a long time and I am accepting that," he said.

But he denied trying to "pull the wool" over the eyes of the jury about the other four offences. "It was not me," he said.

Proceeding