Leeds Bus Stop Rapist
The harrowing attack was caught on a CCTV camera on a neighbouring house. West Yorkshire Police

A Slovakian man has pleaded guilty to the bus stop rape of an 18-year-old girl who was battered more than 20 times with a rock and dragged into a garden. Zdenko Turtak,21, appeared at Leeds Crown Court via video link from Wakefield prison dressed in a grey prison sweatshirt and rosary beads. He pleaded guilty to rape and GBH, but denied attempted murder.

On March 6 Turtak attacked the woman at a bus stop in Leeds and dragged her into the front garden of a house at approximately 10.40pm. The 18-year-old was bludgeoned over the head 20 times with a rock. She was then brutally raped and left for dead.

The entire attack was caught on the CCTV video of a neighbouring property. The chilling footage shows passers-by walking by the house, and a crowd of people getting off a bus nearby, oblivious to the horror unfolding just a few feet away.

The victim was left with a broken hip and a fractured skull prompting police to upgrade the charge from rape to attempted murder due to the severity of the woman's injuries.

Turtak returned to his native Slovakia after the savage attack, but following a police appeal he was found and a warrant for his extradition and arrest was issued.

The Slovakian suspect was held in Kosice in the east of the country after Leeds detectives secured a European Arrest Warrant. Officers said he had been stalking women in Leeds city centre earlier in the evening, before making his way to the outskirts.

The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier, QC, adjourned the case and remanded Turtak in custody. Prosecutors will now decide whether to accept Turtak's pleas. He will next appear before the court on October 8. If the CPS accept his pleas he will next appear before the court on October 19 when he will be sentenced.