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 Salford's very own superhero has ditched fighting crimewaves to take to the airwaves. 
 
 Knight Warrior, real name Roger Hayhurst, below, has hung up his cape for the time being being to focus on his new radio show. 
 
 Roger says a street attack triggered his decision to scale down his crimefighting, although he will be tempted back into costume for charity appearances. 
 
 But superheroes like Superman or Spider-man have inspired his decision to pursue his dream of becoming a broadcast journalist. 
 
 Roger first hit the headlines in July 2011, and soon attracted the country’s attention for his antics patrolling the streets of Swinton, breaking up fights and tackling anti-social behaviour. 
 
 The publicity caught ‘Knight Maiden’ Rebecca Wall’s attention, and, after the 18-year-old wooed him with letters the two got engaged and they now live together at Roger’s mum’s house in Swinton. 
 
 But both have scaled back their crime-fighting activities after Roger was attacked in September. The couple now host a show on Salford City Radio. 
 
 Roger, 20, said: “We were recognised when we were walking through Clifton and some lads started punching me. My face was all swollen. 
 
 “After that I still dress up and occasionally patrol, but now I mainly dress up for charity appearances. Rebecca has got rid of her costume now.” Roger and Rebecca host the two-hour Haywell Show every Friday afternoon, taking a funny look at what’s going on in Salford. 
 
 He said: “We’ve been doing the show for about five weeks now and it’s going really well. 
 
 “It’s a comedy sketch show, we do lots of features.” 
 
 Roger is now considering making broadcasting a full time job – following in the footsteps of other media-savvy caped crusaders, including journalist-turned-blogger Superman and photographer Spider-­man. 
 
 Listen to The Haywell Show every Friday from 1pm to 3pm on Salford City Radio, 94.4FM, and follow them on Twitter @TheHaywellShow. ||||| A deviant drifter with a terrifying rap sheet that includes two sex attacks on elderly women was charged Thursday with the rape of a 73-year-old bird watcher in Central Park. 
 
 
 
 Three rookie cops caught Appalachian ex-con David Albert Mitchell, 42, strolling down an upper West Side street, and the victim later picked him out of a lineup. 
 
 
 
 The West Virginia native — who has been locked up most of his adult life — did not confess and asked for a lawyer. 
 
 
 
 But he was nabbed with the memory card from the victim’s camera, which he snatched after dragging her into the brush to beat and rape her Wednesday morning, police said. 
 
 CBS TV 
 
 “He’s clearly a violent, dangerous individual,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. 
 
 
 
 The disheveled suspect — covered in tattoos of warriors, dragons and the Grim Reaper — angrily spat at reporters as he was taken to Central Booking. 
 
 
 
 Hours later, he remained silent as he was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court and ordered held without bail. 
 
 
 
 Mitchell’s disturbing criminal history began when he was just 18 and charged with molesting and beating to death 87-year-old Annie Parks during a burglary in his hometown of Jenkinjones near the border of Kentucky and Virginia. 
 
 
 
 A jury acquitted him, and months later he was accused of raping a woman in her 70s during another break-in, the Charleston Gazette reported. 
 
 
 
 “He asked me to get him the best possible plea deal,” said Sid Bell, who was his lawyer at the time and is now a prosecutor. 
 
 Marc A. Hermann for New York Daily News 
 
 Mitchell pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery, was sentenced to 10 years and did about eight in state prison. 
 
 
 
 After his release, the ex-con was arrested at least twice more before being convicted of kidnapping in 2003 and sent back to prison for eight more years. 
 
 
 
 He was busted several times in the past two years for probation violations and petty crimes but didn’t serve any hard time before he left for New York. 
 
 
 
 James Keivom/New York Daily News 
 
 Mitchell’s brushes with the law “were always sexually driven,” his sister-in-law and ex-girlfriend Saretta Mitchell told The Associated Press. She said she was the victim in the 2003 case and was nearly sexually assaulted by the drunken predator when he dragged her from her home. 
 
 
 
 Investigators believe he arrived here three or four months ago and was sleeping in Central Park. And he soon found trouble again, sources said. 
 
 
 
 He threatened Ayrton Ferreria dos Santos, a performance artist known as the “Mayor of Strawberry Fields,” with a knife on Aug. 20, police said. 
 
 
 
 “He pulled a 6-inch shank on me,” dos Santos said. “It all happened over a joint.” 
 
 
 
 Michael Schwartz for New York Daily News 
 
 A week ago, Mitchell was masturbating in a section of the park called The Ramble when the elderly bird watcher inadvertently photographed him — triggering a scary encounter, Browne said. 
 
 
 
 “What are you doing?” the man demanded when he saw her camera. “Give me that.” 
 
 
 
 The woman, a professional photographer, ran off without reporting the incident. Then, on Wednesday morning, while she was trying out a new camera lens in the park, the same man pounced and began pummeling her, police said. 
 
 
 
 “Do you remember me?” he asked. Then he dragged her into the brush and brutalized her. 
 
 
 
 “This was a revenge attack,” the shaken and bandaged victim told Channel 7 Thursday night. 
 
 
 
 She said she would not let the attack deter her from her beloved hobby, vowing, “Nobody is going to take that pleasure away from me.” Detectives discovered the earlier photo of Mitchell on the woman’s hard drive and gathered surveillance photos of the attacker leaving the park. 
 
 
 
 The NYPD beefed up patrols near the park. Officers Enmanuel Rodriguez, Steven Ourelio and Sicelin Ortiz spotted Mitchell Wednesday evening at W. 77th St. and Amsterdam Ave. 
 
 
 
 “We had very alert rookie officers who recognized him,” Browne said. 
 
 
 
 After the victim identified him, the career criminal was charged with rape, a predatory sex act, a criminal sex act, robbery and felony assault. He was also charged with menacing in the knife incident last month. 
 
 New York Daily News 
 
 It was the first rape in the park this year, and Mayor Bloomberg said New Yorkers should not be fearful. “I feel so sorry for the woman,” he said. “It’s a terrible thing, but I think the overall history of safety in the park says it’s one of the safest places you can be.”But some parkgoers were still nervous. “I am appalled. I spend so much time in the park — that is really, really scary,” said Andy Young, 33, an actress who lives in midtown.Derrick Edwards, 29, a tour guide from Brooklyn, said he had no qualms about using the park. “This ain’t the ’70s. It’s so rare that it’s not a concern.”With Edgar Sandoval, Rich Schapiro, Tina Moore, and Jennifer H. Cunninghamtconnor@nydailynews.com
– A real-life superhero says he's hanging up his mask after getting beat up on the streets of Manchester, England, the Telegraph reports. Roger Hayhurst, 20, who called himself Knight Warrior, had promised "to get crime off the streets" while donning a $300 costume of black-and-blue lycra. He even patrolled with his 18-year-old fiancee Rebecca Wall, who went by Knight Maiden. But "we were recognized when we were walking thorough Clifton and some lads started punching me," Hayhurst tells the Manchester Evening News. "My face was all swollen. After that I still dress up and occasionally patrol, but I mainly dress up for charity appearances." Wall has hung up her cape too. For the past few weeks they've been hosting a comedy sketch radio show, and he hopes to model Clark Kent by becoming a full-time journalist. At least his mother won't have to worry anymore—though 61-year-old Jennifer Hayhurst says the police did "keep an eye on him."