Michael Chandler is currently serving six life sentences for the crimes he was convicted of in 1988
A serial rapist with six convictions has admitted a knifepoint rape on a 19-year-old woman - 30 years after he was acquitted of the assault.
Michael Chandler was jailed in 1988 for a series of attacks on young women between 1985 and 1987.
At the time he was cleared of raping the teenager, but improved DNA science now links him to the rape in Harrow.
A rare appeal was made against the "double jeopardy" rule in order to bring 53-year-old Chandler to justice.
Since a change in the law in 2003, the Court of Appeal can quash an acquittal and order a retrial in serious cases when "new and compelling" evidence is produced.
The woman had been walking through the north-west London park on 1 March 1986 when she was attacked by a man wearing a balaclava and holding a knife.
'Sustained attacks'
She was dragged towards a railway line where she was instructed to remove her clothing and raped.
In a victim impact statement, she said the attack had "completely screwed my head" and she "found it impossible to trust any man".
Police had kept the victim's clothes and used a method of matching very small amounts of DNA to link Chandler to the attack.
He pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to one count of rape.
Following a separate cold case review in 2014, Chandler previously admitted the rape and false imprisonment of an eighth woman in her own home in 1986.
He will be sentenced for the attacks on the two women on 16 January at the Old Bailey.
Det Sgt Michael McInerney said both had been "subject to violent and sustained attacks".
He said their "ordeal has been compounded" by how long it had taken to secure a conviction.
Chandler is currently serving six life sentences for the crimes he was convicted of in 1988, which included breaking into the homes of some of his victims and raping them.
