Murder suspect Jesse Matthew receives three life sentences for 2005 sex attack

Jesse Matthew – the US man accused of murdering college students Hannah Graham, 18, and 20 year-old Morgan Harrington – could spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced to three life terms for sexual assault and attempted murder of another, unidentified woman in 2005. During sentencing, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge David S Schell described Matthew as "vicious and brutal" and that the violence of his offences had been "extreme".

Fairfax County Commonwealth's attorney Raymond F Morrogh said that Matthew was "modern-day Jekyll and Hyde": one minute could be pleasant, but could turn into a vicious sexual predator. He added that Matthew had never shown remorse for the attack on 24 September 2005.

When the judge asked Matthew if he would like to address the court he simply bowed his head and replied "No, sir."

As Matthew was sentenced before a packed courtroom his mother, Debra Matthew-Carr screamed, "I hope you rot in hell." It is not sure who the outburst was directed to, but Matthew's family had pled for leniency and one of his ex-girlfriends wrote to the prosecutor saying he had been raped as a child. Matthew-Carr refused to move when deputies attempted to remove her from the courtroom.

The parents of Graham and Harrington were also present during the hearing.

Next July Matthew faces the death penalty when he is tried for the 2014 murder of British-born teenager Graham. Graham disappeared from Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Virginia, on 13 September 2014. Her remains were discovered five weeks later in Albemarle County.

Matthew has also been charged with killing Virginia Tech student Harrington, who was killed five years before Graham. Harrington was last seen alive at a Metallica concert in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2009. Her T-shirt was later found on a nearby tree. Her body was found three months later, in a field six miles away.

The woman Matthew assaulted in 2005, referred to as "RG" in court, had just started a job after graduate school and was walking home from a bookstore when Matthew grabbed her outside her rented townhouse.

The investigation into RG's assault and the allegations against Matthew had been previously reported on the CBS programme 48 Hours: Deadly Connections.

Matthew will be eligible for parole for the attack on RG when he is 60 years-old.