TEENAGER Katie Uphill arrived home from a family holiday to find police officers waiting for her on the driveway.

Aged just 15 at the time, her 19-year-old boyfriend had been arrested for raping a 92-year-old woman multiple times and stealing £70 – and he claimed she had put him up to it.

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Katie, now 43, was hauled in for questioning and quickly released with no further action, but couldn’t believe her ears as she learned of the crimes Philip Green was accused.

The evil sex attacker was described as a “psychopath” by a judge while experienced detectives labelled it one of the worst crimes they had ever been involved with.

Katie, who had been in a relationship with Green for six months by the summer of 1998, has spoken out for the first time and described him as “lovely and charming” when they first met – and there was no indication of what the monster was capable of.

In court he was told by Justice Turner that life in prison should mean life for him – however, in 2019 the Parole Board opted to greenlight his release.

Katie, who was not informed at the time, told The Sun this week: “He is a dangerous psychopath and what he did was beyond evil.

“I am scared now he is back on the streets if he might come and find me. He should never have been released and left to rot in jail.”

Katie recalled she had returned from the two-week trip with her parents to Ibiza to find police at her house and at the centre of one of the most shocking sexual crimes the UK had ever seen.

Late in the evening on July 3 1998, Green, having drank large amounts of cider and sniffed 13 cans of butane gas, crawled through a window the frail pensioner, 92, had left open for her cat in a bid to steal money, Cardiff Crown Court heard during his trial the following year.

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The unsuspecting OAP was watching the Nine O’Clock News on TV when she turned to see Green.

Prosecutor Huw Evans said: “She was asked for money but before she could answer she was hit to the head and knocked to the floor face down.

“He then violently and repeatedly raped her while punching her to the face with his fists.

“She could feel herself drifting in and out of consciousness.”

The court also heard how, once the victim was allowed to get up, she went to her bedroom and gave Green £70 from one of the drawers.

Mr Evans said the attacker then told her: “If you are going to tell the police something terrible will happen to you.”

She was left clutching photographs of her dead husband and brother – and later told officers she wished she’d died, the prosecutor added.

Evil Green was identified by fingerprints on a packet of cigarettes and a disposable lighter he dropped during the attack.

Stephen Hopkins, defending, described the attack as “inhuman” but added his client was “grateful” his victim “is a courageous lady” and “in his own inarticulate way he is remorseful”.

Green pleaded guilty to two counts of rape, burglary and wounding with intent after subjecting her to what the judge described as a “prolonged and brutal physical assault such that any younger person might have found more than they could bear”.

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Domestic abuse – how to get help

DOMESTIC abuse can affect anyone – including men – and does not always involve physical violence.

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  • Physical abuse – This can range from slapping or hitting to being shoved over, choked or bitten.
  • Sexual abuse – Being touched in a way you do not want to be touched, hurt during sex, pressured into sex or forced to have sex when you do not consent.

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Judge Turner labelled Green a “psychopath” who presented a “grave and immediate danger to the general public for the foreseeable future” and sentenced him to two life terms.

The parole board confirmed this week a decision was made to release Green in 2019 after serving 20 years – although his whereabouts since are unknown.

But Katie, of Cardiff, said she was not told he was now free and has been living in fear of ever seeing him again.

She said: “He should never have been released. He should have been detained in a psychiatric unit for the rest of his life.

“If he was here could he walk past me. I am of course scared of what he might do.

“My message to the government is they should not have let him and he needed to stay in jail.

“I will never forget his face. His evil actions. I loved this man as a teenager. He was my first love.

“But I now realise how possessive he was. He never wanted to leave my side or let me talk to anyone.

“All I did was go on holiday and then I came back and my life was changed forever.”

Katie said Green had tried to tell cops that she had “put him up to it” and was coerced into storing his gas under her bed.

She was interviewed by detectives but quickly ruled out of any enquiries and Green was arrested after going on the run in Bristol.

She added: “When I got back from holiday police were at my house. He told police he had done it for me.

“I was interviewed at the time and was only 15. He was 19 so he should not have been with me.

“My voice was supposed to have told him to do the crime, so he told the police my name and address.

“Detectives were at my house as they thought I was a accomplice, but I wasn’t even in the country.

“I was just young and stupidly in love.”

Katie said after his arrest he would send her letters from prison about how he “still loved and missed me” that forced her parents to take out an injunction against her.

She added: “We had been together for six months and I still to this day have no idea why he did that. It is just so disgusting.

“”He made me hide the gas cylinder under my bed. After I found out the details of what he did I never wanted to see him again. It was so bad. It was like torture. I was only young but I thought he loved me and did everything for me.

“I was just 15 and was disgusted and scared. It could have been me, or even my mum.

“School was hard and I was bullied a lot because of it. It was horrible and I am still suffering to this day. I am still on medication and worried one day he might came and try and find me.”

Katie recalls a whirlwind romance that saw them get engaged despite her age but now sees how controlling and coercive he was.

She added: “He proposed to me in the middle of town centre and I said yes. To celebrate we went to the cinema and for a meal.

“He used to ply me with alcohol as I was too young to drink.

“We would just spend time in the park. Just talking. I loved him. He was an older boy but he was charming and nice.

“We would go to the cinema, and everything. I don’t recall him ever being nasty or malicious to me but he was controlling.

“That was until I went on the holiday and we went a bit nuts that I was going away without him. But my parents had paid for it already.

“He broke my heart as I thought we were in love. I went back to school after in the sixth form and was really badly bullied. I was called a granny rapist and all sorts.”

Katie said the last time she saw him was when they “said goodbye” as she left for the trip and had no idea what had happened until she got back.

“He had given them my address and told police I made him to do that,” she recalled.

“The police took loads of fingerprints and told him what he had done.

“It was horrific. My mum was a carer and when she found out she cried her eyes out. She had let him into the house, made him tea.

“I was not allowed to be a witness. My mum said no so I was not involved in court.

“People told me he was supposed to have died – but I see he has now been released. I haven’t been told anything and have no idea what happened to him.

“I do not want anything to do with him. I thought he was a decent guy, he had dark hair, dark eyes and was tall. But he was so evil for what he did.

“My parents told me the detectives had said in 25 years it was the most horrific crime they had ever seen. It was so bad. It has never got out of my head.

“I still have nightmares and in torture about it. I cry all the time and have self-harmed. I just want it to go away. What an evil man for doing what he did to that poor and defenceless elderly woman

During the sentencing, the Judge described the crime and said after gaining entry to the victim’s flat he had “set about degrading, violating her person.”

He told the court: “Words fail adequately to convey the horror that a person so young as yourself could behave in such an inhuman fashion against such an elderly person.”

Green was given life for the two counts of rape and gave no additional sentence for the other two charges.

At the time the judge said it was “unthinkable” Green should be released from prison in the near future and no minimum sentence was given.

The court had heard how Green had broken into the woman’s home one evening through a window left open for her cats.

He went on to hit the woman on the head, pushed her to the floor and raped her before stealing her money.

He was identified by fingerprints left on a packet of cigarettes and a lighter left at the victims flat.

The parole board confirmed this week that a decision to release Green was made in December 2019. His exact release date after the decision is not known.

The uncertainty has brought all the trauma back for Katie as she lives in fear of coming face to face with Green.

She said: “I still have nightmares and wake up crying, where he’s trying to catch me.”