Serial sex attacker Richard Baker has told the Old Bailey how he stalked round Southend looking for a victim.

Baker - is accused of raping a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Leigh and attacking two other women in the town, just days later - said: "I know I need help for what I have done. The only way to get help is to agree to start afresh."

Part-time disc-jockey Baker, 34, denies he raped four of his victims. He added: "I am going to prison for a long time. Let me go to prison for the right reasons."

Prosecuting, Nicholas Hilliard replied: "We all agree with that Mr Baker."

The court heard Baker left his friend's house in Wickford at around 4pm on August 31 and drove into Southend.

Once there he enjoyed a fish and chip supper and played on the slot machines in the amusement arcades on the seafront until it got dark.

He did not leave the area until the early hours of the morning when he drove along the London Road towards London.

His youngest victim - a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Leigh - was walking home alone when he spotted her for the first time.

Baker, originally from Bodmin, Cornwall, said: "I saw her walking and I assumed she would not be walking far. Much later I was still driving around and I saw her still walking."

Baker admits he then grabbed the defenceless girl from behind, threatening to break her neck.

He added from the witness box: "It all happened so quickly. I grabbed her. Initially, she fell to the floor. I picked her up."

Baker said he told the girl he had been paid to attack her.

"I was trying to terrorise that poor girl," he added.

However, he denies he raped her.

On September 12 Baker was back in Southend - just the day after arriving back in the country from Spain.

He denies he was responsible for an attempted indecent assault on a 16-year-old girl in an underpass in Queensway in the town, but confesses he preyed on a 21-year-old woman in Beedell Avenue, Westcliff.

Baker then drove to St John's Wood in London where he attacked a 26-year-old croupier as she walked home in the early hours of the morning.

He is said to have had sex with her twice, though he told the jury: "I didn't rape her."

Baker has admitted four indecent assaults and one assault causing actual bodily harm.

He denies four charges of rape, two of indecent assault, an affray and an attempted indecent assault.

The jury was due to retire to consider its verdict on these today.

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