A 42-year-old man who raped a mother in her home while her child was upstairs has been jailed by a judge for four years.

Paul Thwaits was branded a control freak and a bully by Judge Timothy Nash when he was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court.

He had been convicted of rape and putting his victim in fear of violence by harassing and intimidating her.

Thwaits had denied the offences, claiming the victim consented to sex and that he had never tried to intimidate her. The jury heard the two had consensual sex in the days before the rape.

But when Thwaits wanted sex again and the victim refused, he attacked her.

She had to wait two days before she could get out of the house in Canterbury and move to a women’s refuge in the city.

After Thwaits was arrested and bailed, he contacted the victim several times and confronted her at the cashpoint at Asda, in Sturry Road, Canterbury. The incident was caught on CCTV and he was again arrested.

Judge Nash said Thwaits was not very violent, but used manipulation and emotional blackmail.

“It comes across that you are a control freak and a bully,” Judge Nash added.

Thwaits, of Manchester Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, will serve half his sentence, less 145 days he has already served.

He has previous convictions, but not for any similar offences.