REVEALED: First image of Beeston bus stop rapist

This is the man who admitted raping and violently attacking an 18-year-old woman at a Beeston bus stop earlier this year.

The mugshot of Zdenko Turtak, 21, from Velka Ida, Kosice, Slovakia, has been released by police after it emerged he will not face a charge of attempted murder for the incident in Beeston Road on March 6.

The Crown Prosecution service (CPS) has dropped the charge, which Turtak, who is in custody in Wakefield, earlier pleaded not guilty to.

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At a hearing at Leeds Crown Court today, in which Turtak did not appear, Judge Tom Bayliss QC confirmed that the CPS has accepted his pleas and that Turtak will be sentenced on October 19.

Judge Bayliss said the defendant will be sentenced after admitting GBH and rape but said he had “concerns” over a stalking allegation linked to CCTV footage of him following a number of women before the attack.

But Robin Frieze, defending, said: “The so-called stalking issue is a non issue.”

He continued: “The defence’s position is that given what he did shortly after following those other women, the proposition he was out looking for a woman to attack is self evident.”

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The court heard that the sentencing judge will be shown the CCTV but that the defence “will not be calling any evidence to challenge it”.

Mr Frieze said the court can determine what significance the evidence has and how that might impact the nature of Turtak’s sentence.

Judge Bayliss added that the issue of stalking “heavily impacts on the issue of dangerousness”.

Hundreds of officers were involved in an investigation into the Beeston attack, which included the collection of saliva samples from hundreds of men in the Beeston area.

There was also a reconstruction of the incident screened on BBC One’s Crimewatch programme.

Turtak was extradited back to the UK by officers from West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Enquiry Team.

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