A grieving mother is devastated to learn a killer who repeatedly raped her daughter then threw her over a bridge may be freed to do it again.

Confined to a wheelchair as a result of her injuries, Victoria Legg watched as Donald Andrews was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2012 and told he may never be released from prison.

Miss Legg was found dead at a flat in Tanfield Road, Croydon, 18 months later and an inquest into her death ruled she had taken an overdose of the medication prescribed for her injuries.

Her mother Cindy holds Andrews responsible for her daughter’s death.

Miss Legg’s ordeal began on September 18, 2011, when the 31-year-old of Brighton Road, Purley, was befriended by Andrews in the gay pub the Star and Garter in Bromley.

Her attacker, who is now 51, led her to his flat in nearby Tweedy Road but instead of letting her phone for a taxi he double locked the door, beat her up and raped her several times throughout the night and into the next day.

Your Local Guardian: Donald Andrews has been jailed for life
Donald Andrews told Victoria Legg his plan was to kill her and chop her into pieces

Andrews then made her take a bath and wash her hair in an attempt to destroy forensic evidence before he told her he would take her to the train station.

Instead he then took her to a wooded area near the River Quaggy where he raped her again.

He told her he had raped and killed before and that his plan was to kill her and chop her into pieces.

Then he picked her up and threw her over a railing into the water, leaving her with multiple injuries including a broken pelvis.

From May 2012: How we reported the sentencing

Killer gets life for raping woman and throwing her over bridge into river

Sickening background of brutal rapist Donald Andrews

Less than four years after this brutal attack Andrews is going to the Court of Appeal on April 21 to ask for permission to appeal his sentence.

If this is given then he is expected to appeal the sentence that day.

Mrs Legg, of St Benets Grove, Carshalton, said the judges must refuse this appeal as if he is released she believes he will kill and rape again.

She said: "The attack affected her personality and she was scared of her own shadow.

"Another family is going to suffer [if they let him out].

"Victoria is not the only one to suffer at his hands.

"They’ve let this man out time and time again to walk the streets."

The 50-year-old added: "Before she had passed away it had been a couple of months where she was getting her confidence back.

"She had phobias [because of the attack] but she was getting through it and she was a fighter.

"It’s heartbreaking to think that she’s not here anymore.

"She was only 31 and you feel that your heart’s been wrenched out.

"She was just so bubbly and she would liven up every party."

Some of Andrews’s previous convictions

  • In April 1984 he was sentenced to six years in youth custody for a manslaughter that happened in December 1982.
     
  • In February 1985 he was given nine years for manslaughter and aggravated burglary after he stabbed a pensioner to death in September 1983.
     
  • In 2003 he was jailed for six years, later extended to eight years, for indecent assault and actual bodily harm after attacking a woman he met in a Croydon gay nightclub The Cage in May 2002.