A brutal sex attacker tried to rape a woman a day after he was given early prison release following a similar attack on a pensioner.

Gregory Pierce, 27,who told police he felt the "need to rape", left his latest victim bleeding and bruised after trying to rape her on a seafront promenade.

A day earlier, he had been in prison serving time for breaking into a 91-year-old woman's home with the intention of raping her.

But he was allowed out of jail early after serving just over half his five-year sentence, allowing him to attack another woman a day after walking free.

He told his terrified 49-year-old victim: "I don't want to hurt you, I want to rape you."

Today, Pierce is back behind bars serving life for his crimes.

His latest attack took place on Eastbourne seafront, Hove Crown Court heard, in the early evening of August 26 last year.

His victim, a married woman, had started regularly walking alone along the seafront as part of an exercise regime.

As she passed along the promenade she noticed Pierce sitting in a shelter and they exchanged a smile. Minutes later she reached an isolated area at Holywell. As she climbed the steep Crow's Nest Walk she became aware she was being followed.

Elizabeth Smaller, prosecuting, told the court the victim described her attacker as pouncing on her from behind like a cat.

He punched her in the head and forced her to the ground.

The woman tried to stall her attacker by talking to him in the hope a passerby would come to help her. But Pierce told her he was going to rape her.

She managed to break free when she saw a couple sitting on a bench in the distance and called to them, allowing her to escape.

Victim support groups and politicians are outraged Pierce was allowed out to attack again.

Rape Crisis said: "It is absolutely incredible somebody convicted of attempted rape and sent to prison should be allowed out early and be able to carry out this despicable crime. The system has singularly failed to stop this man. The prison service has failed spectacularly."

Pierce was sentenced to five years in jail in 2001 but served only two years and eight months. He was also given a two-year concurrent sentence for assault.

Pierce was able to gain early release for his vile crime even though Thames Valley police, who dealt with his earlier offence, said five years was not enough of a punishment for attacking an elderly woman.

Graham Hill, Acting Chief Executive of Sussex Victim Support said: "To learn the person responsible had only just been released from an earlier sentence for a similar crime beggars belief. We can only hope in the future every possible effort is made to prevent this happening again."

Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson said: "This all serves to undermine the public's confidence in the criminal justice system when someone convicted of such a serious crime serves such a small part of their original sentence."

Pierce, from High Wycombe, Bucks, fled from the latest attack when his victim escaped. He gave himself up at the town's police station three weeks later when he admitted a charge of attempted rape.

Judge Charles Kemp, sentencing him to life imprisonment, ordered he must serve a minimum of four-and-a-half years before he is considered for release. He will have to sign on the sex offenders register for life.

The judge told him he needed to pass a sentence which would protect the public.

Pierce had told officers he arrived in the seaside town the day before the attack intending to kill himself by jumping off cliffs at Beachy Head. He said he slept rough that night and after spending the day drinking heavily he noticed the woman and something snapped inside him.

He told officers: "I feel the need to rape."

DS Lee Garland, who led the investigation in Eastbourne said: "I would like to thank the lady who was involved in this appalling and degrading ordeal for being strong throughout the investigation and assisting police at every opportunity. I feel a life sentence is fully deserved on this occasion."