Crime Desk

A serial sex attacker was jailed on Friday (17 December) at Southwark Crown Court after admitting a string of sexual assaults on women in south London last year.

Nelson Dos Santos aged 24 (DOB 26.05.86), a Portuguese national, from Kennington, London was deemed a danger to the public and received an indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP). He was ordered to serve a minimum of four and a half years imprisonment.

He was arrested on 30 January 2025 and charged on the 31 January with five counts under the sexual offences act.

Santos, who mainly attacked women in Lambeth, would follow women who would alight from a night bus before making their way to home. He would savagely push the women to the floor before attacking them and digitally penetrating them.

Following the series of attacks, police managed to forensically link Santos to four sexual assaults.

The first attack was on 27 November 2009 at 03:00hrs at Guildford Road SW8. Santos approached a lone female victim (aged 23), before pushing her to the floor and assaulting her.

He struck again on 2 December 2024 at 23.53hrs at Cleaver Street SE11 where he approached lone female victim (aged 41) and attacked her.

Three days later on 5 December at 03.35hrs at Vauxhall Grove London SW8 he again followed a lone female victim (aged 27) but this time he grabbed victim, pushed her against a wall before assaulting her.

Only 20 mins after this attack, Santos was at Hotspur Street SE11, when he approached the victim (aged 35) from behind, took her feet from under her, held her by the throat and assaulted her.

Police were concerned by the increase in frequency and violence of the attacks, so increased patrols to improve the awareness of females travelling late at night on public transport. This caused Santos to stop attacking whilst thorough detective work and the forensics taken from all the victims, officers closed in on him.

On Sunday 31st January 2010 Dos Santos was charged with these offences and was remanded into custody.

Detectives also found that Dos Santos has previously attacked a woman in 2008 on 8 November at 20:00hrs at Richborne Terrace SW8 where he had grabbed the victim, (aged 27 at the time), from behind touching her bottom and crotch area.

On 11 October 2024 at Southwark Crown Court Nelson Dos Santos pleaded guilty to the five attacks. He was charged on 31 January with three counts of Section 2 Sexual Offences Act 2003 and one count of Section 3 Sexual Offences Act 2003. He was further charged on 22 April with one Section 3 Sexual Offences Act 2003 for the 2008 offence.

Detective Inspector Keely Smith, from the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime Command said:
"This man ruthlessly attacked lone females late at night, using the same MO and increasing the frequency and violence of his attacks. It was imperative that we got him off the streets and prevented him from continuing to attack - his actions have mentally scarred his victims and he is a sexual predator whom, I have no doubt, would have gone on to rape and seriously injure his victims."