SECURITY at Southampton University has been stepped up in the wake of a stalker who preyed on female students around the campus.

Almost £500,000 is being spent on installing CCTV cameras across the entire university campus.

The move comes after Leszek Rucki was jailed for four years and nine months. He admitted a series of attacks on young women who studied at the university.

Rucki, of Honeysuckle Road, Bassett, even kidnapped one of his victims, who he dragged off a footpath while carrying a knife.

Speaking about the jailing of Leszek, who is originally from Poland and will be deported back to his homeland when he completes his prison term, a university spokesman said: "We are glad that the situation has been resolved.

"We always take the security and welfare of our students extremely seriously.

"We will be installing CCTV cameras that will cover the entire campus and will be operational in time for the new term in September.

"We were planning to invest the £450,000 in the CCTV programme before these incidents occurred but it is certainly fair to say that they accelerated the programme and our need to install the cameras as soon as possible."

Rucki, 35, was jailed after admitting eight charges, including kidnap, common assault and carrying a knife.

Southampton Crown Court heard how the Pole stalked women along the roads in and around the campus.

Over a two-week period police investigated more than a dozen reports from women who said they had been followed by a man at night In one case Rucki grabbed a woman and in another he kidnapped the victim.

The court also heard how experts who interviewed Rucki said his stalking was sexually motivated. After the court case investigating officer DI Nigel Oliver said the arrest of Rucki came just in time.

"We were under no doubt that he was certainly a very dangerous man. He was a very serious incident waiting to happen."