Teenage rapist Jatindar Pal was starting an eight-year jail term today after being trapped by DNA tests.

The attack on the 18-year-old girl in Oxford was so horrific that she thought she was going to die.

Convicted: Jatinder Pal Pal, 17, of Freelands Road, east Oxford, at first denied responsibility. But he admitted his guilt when tests showed that the chances of him not being the rapist were one billion to one.

The former college porter grabbed the girl in Cowley Road as she walked home after a night out with friends, marched her to an isolated spot and raped her.

The judge, Mr Justice Astill, agreed to an Oxford Mail request to lift the ban on naming Pal. He said: "It is entirely appropriate that the public should know who committed these terrible crimes."

Oxford Crown Court was told that the victim is still awaiting the results of tests to show whether Pal passed on a sexually transmittable disease or the Aids virus during his unprotected assault.

Isobel Ascherson, prosecuting, said Pal, who pleaded guilty to three charges of rape, attempted rape and false imprisonment, pounced on the girl early on July 23 as she tried to get a bus home.

He told her he would kill her if she screamed. He then forced her to walk along Bartlemas Close, through Barracks Lane and into Herbert Close.

She said: "It is clear from her statement she had a genuine belief she would be killed.

He told her he had already done this to several other women that evening and repeated his threats to kill her."

Pal then dragged her down an alleyway, ordered her to undress and raped her. After the attack, he insisted on a kiss before he would let her go, and told her the names she should give her child if she was to become pregnant.

Miss Ascherson said Pal was caught after a matter of considerable good fortune meant the police already had a sample of his DNA on the national database following a youth court conviction for assault in January.

He was arrested just five days after the rape on July 28.

She added: "The victim has dealt with considerable strength with this ordeal and in fact declined counselling."

Nigel Daly, for Pal, said: "He shows an alarming lack of maturity for a 17-year-old and certainly requires a proper education as to the relationships between men and women.

Some of his remarks about women are quite alarming. This can be regarded as something out of character."

Sentencing Pal to five years for rape, three years to run consecutively for attempted rape, and two years to run concurrently for false imprisonment, Mr Justice Astill said: "This was a determined, persistent and terrifying attack on a young, vulnerable woman on her own late at night.

"This young woman's life has been blighted by what you have done to her. In many ways you have ruined her life for the present time."

He told Pal he would go on the Sex Offenders' Register, probably for life, when he was freed.