A KNIFE-wielding burglar who left satanic symbols on victim's walls and modelled himself on a US serial killer has been caged for 12 years.

Conor Ashton was obsessed with Richard Ramirez, who murdered at least 14 in California in 1985 and was dubbed The Night Stalker.

Ashton, 23, called himself The Stalking Ransacker, writing it on victims’ walls along with pentagrams and a running total of raids he claimed over five years in Colchester, Essex.

He tied up his last two victims at knifepoint and stood over women as they slept before using plastic cable ties to bind them while he ransacked their homes.

The twisted burglar mostly targeted women, helping himself to hot chocolate and wine as he rifled through underwear drawers.

Ashton drew graffiti at his victims' homes, including pentagrams and comments such as "the stalking ransacker", "guess who's next", "media attention?" and "police suck".

In 2017 he broke into a house and held a female victim by knifepoint before tying tied her arms and legs together.

He gave her a chilling warning that if she screamed, her friend upstairs would be attacked by an accomplice.

After 20 minutes of waiting she called out and her friend came down to untie her - she had not been hurt.

A month later he broke into another house, armed with a knife.

He again tied up the victim and said: "Tell the pigs I had fun, I already know my next target - it will be next week sometime."

Ashton initially targeted empty homes, but later broke into two houses where women were asleep.

The women said he wore a balaclava and gloves, bound them with cable ties at knifepoint and demanded bank cards.

Cops linked him to the crimes when they found those items in his room, discovered online searches for "original night stalker" and matched his handwriting with a college application.

A 23-year-old victim said she still struggles to sleep at night and is "easily disturbed and panicked by small noises and movement".

Detective Inspector Alan Pitcher, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said after the court hearing that Ashton was a "dangerous individual whose offending had clearly escalated".

Mr Pitcher said: "This has been a very disturbing case and I can't begin to imagine how terrified Ashton's last two victims in particular must have felt."

Ashton was jailed for 12 years for the aggravated burglaries and three years for each of the burglaries, to run concurrently.

Jailing Ashton, the judge said: "It is my judgement on the facts of these cases that you are a dangerous individual.

"You do present a risk of serious harm whether it be physical or psychological should you commit offences of a similar nature.

"You were trying to replicate a notorious criminal and had given yourself a moniker that you graffitied the scene to taunt police.

"You told police you had committed offences and you were going to commit more because they would not catch you."

Ashton was also handed a restraining order in respect of one of the burglary victims.

The former farmworker had wept in the dock after admitting eight counts of burglary and two charges of aggravated burglary.

Defending him, Richard Conley told the court that Ashton had an incredibly traumatic childhood which may have led to his offending and had been a model prisoner since his arrest almost a year ago.

He said: "This series of offences would be more at home in a bad Hollywood movie than a court room in Essex.

"It seems he was seeking some sort of escapism from a life that had not always been kind to him."