A woman became a victim of William Jameson, an old friend contacted via Facebook, who lured her to an isolated shed where she was bound, gagged and raped.

The man, William Jameson, 48, who unknown to the woman had a history of violence including manslaughter, attempted murder and child rape, then left the victim tied up with a rope around her neck.

The 31-year-old woman, who is a civil servant and cannot be named for legal reasons, managed to free her feet and force her way out of the building with her wrists still tied by electric cable.

She frantically tried to raise the alarm and was seen by the driver of a passenger train as she ran alongside a railway track in Wiltshire waving her bound hands, an image which was caught by the onboard CCTV.

The victim then managed to reach a nearby farmhouse where, distressed and covered in mud and blood, she got help.

Sex offender William Jameson was jailed for life after he bound, gagged and raped a woman contacted via Facebook

The woman, who worked in the civil service in Ireland, first met William Jameson, who she knew as Liam, in 2004 when they were on a computer course.

The woman had suffered from delusions that a relative was being held against their will in hospital, which married William Jameson knew about and preyed upon.

William Jameson enticed her to England saying he would help free the family member.

William Jameson cheated her out of £18,000 ($27,000), saying he needed the money to pay for the relative’s “escape” and to buy some land in Wiltshire which they would sell at a profit.

In November 2010, William Jameson took the woman to a patch of land near the village of Minety, Wiltshire, under the pretence of meeting a nurse with the relative there.

When Jameson got the woman into the shed, he forced her to the ground and tied her hands and feet with electric cable, binding it behind her back.

The attacker put a gag in her mouth and tied a rope around her neck and started to strangle her, saying she was going to be his “sex slave”.

William Jameson told the woman he was “a dangerous and violent man” and that he had been in prison in Belfast for rape and attempted murder.

Prosecutor Kerry Barker told Swindon Crown Court the woman offered William Jameson more money in a bid to get him to leave her, but he was not interested and raped her.

After William Jameson went outside to answer his phone the woman heard him leave and she managed to free her feet after removing a shoe and sock.

The victim then forced the shed door and, with her hands still tied, got to the railway line before running to a nearby farm to raise the alarm.

After William Jameson was arrested police searched his home and found he had more than 1,500 sickening films and pictures of violent sexual child abuse on his computer.

William Jameson, of Finchampstead, Berkshire, pleaded guilty to rape, false imprisonment and ten counts of making indecent images of children.

Prosecutor Kerry Barker told the court that in 1986 William Jameson was jailed for 12 years for attempted murder, attempted rape, and other sex offences against a child.

William Jameson lured an 8-year-old girl from a Belfast street before putting a belt round her neck and sexually abusing her, then twice slammed a breeze block into her head in an attempt to kill her.

In 1998, William Jameson was jailed for 6 years in Dublin after a man died when he strangled him in a sex game.

William Jameson’s attorney, Alex Daymond said his client realized he presented a danger to the public and was facing a lengthy jail term, but urged it to not be a life term.

Alex Daymond said his client had been abused terribly as a child and while in custody on remand was clean of drugs and was even a “listener” for other prisoners.

Although the shed was kitted out with sex toys Alex Daymond said it was where William Jameson went to act out his alter ego, Julie-Ann, away from his wife and was not set up for the rape.

Jailing William Jameson for life, Recorder Peter Blair QC said: “You pose a considerable risk of serious harm to the public. This case falls fair and square into one that that demands a sentence of life imprisonment.

“Mr Daymond rightly observes that this sentence should be reserved for the most grave cases – in my judgment this is one of those.

“I am quite simply of the view that there is a significant risk of serious harm to the pubic. Your offences are considerably serious to justify such a sentence. I also take into account your previous convictions.”

William Jameson will not be allowed to seek parole for five years and must register as a sex offender for life.