A COUPLE who unknowingly befriended a rapist and alllowed him to stay in their home said on Wednesday: "It's ridiculous that he might only serve seven years."

Deborah and Jonathan Hardman put rapist Andrew Malkinson up in their home for a few weeks before he attacked a 33-year-old woman from Kearsley. They had met him on holiday in Gran Canaria.

And, as Malkinson is starting a life sentence for raping and trying to choke a mother-of-two, Mrs Hardman said: "We were looking for life and he has got it, but it's ridiculous that he might only serve seven years. That's nothing.

"It terrifies me to think that he had been living in my house with my three daughters."

The judge described 38-year-old Malkinson as a "sexual predator" and a danger to women when he was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Tuesdayday.

He was found guilty of attempting to choke, asphyxiate or stangle with intent to rape the 33-year-old woman as she walked home alone through Little Hulton following a row with her boyfriend.

She was dragged down a motorway embankment in Cleggs Lane and attacked in the early hours of July 19 last year.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Henshell, said: "This is amongst the most serious cases of this type and these circumstances make you out as a sexual predator, and a man who is prepared to use extreme violence against a defenceless victim.

"I have no doubt that you pose a high risk to women that at present cannot be accurately assessed.

"The effect of this attack on your victim will live with her for the rest if her life."

He recommended that Malkinson would be eligible for parole after 14 years and would serve a minimum of seven years, including the nine months he has been in custody already.

During February's seven-day trial at Manchester Crown Court the victim -- who cannot be named for legal reasons -- told the jury how she thought she was going to die at the hands of her attacker.

She revealed how she desperately fought with him and scratched his face.

But he overpowered her, strangled her until she fell unconscious then raped her.

She managed to scramble up the bank and raised the alarm with a dog walker.

She suffered a broken bone in her neck, a fractured cheekbone, severe cuts and bruising and a swollen eye.

Malkinson, who was born in Grimsby, had lived in Holland for 10 years.

He moved to Walkden just a few weeks before the attack after meeting the Hardmans on holiday.

They befriended him and shortly after they flew home, he told them he was flying to Tenerife to look for work.

He later called them to say he had been robbed and had no money. He asked if he could stay with them. He moved in and took a job as a security guard at the Ellesmere Shopping Centre, Walkden.

After a few weeks, he moved out to stay with a colleague in Aspinall Court, Atherton.

Shortly after attacking the woman, he told his friend he was returning to Holland. His friend dropped him off at Manchester Airport, but he never left the country.

He was arrested in Grimsby on August 2, two weeks after the attack, and later charged.

Officers had followed a lead given to them by Little Hulton community officers PCs Christopher Baybutt and Gary Waite -- whom the judge commended for their part in the conviction.

Following Malkinson's arrest the victim and two other witnesses, who had seen the woman being followed by a man shortly before the attack, picked him out of a police identity parade.