Emmanuel Mutandi 31

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A FORMER engineering student who raped a prostitute in a graveyard has been jailed for eight years.

Emmanuel Mutandi had denied raping his victim, and maintains that the two had consensual sex.

However, the 22-year-old was convicted of the "violent rape" in the early hours of Saturday, August 2 2014 at the conclusion of a three-day trial at Bournemouth Crown Court.

Mutandi had originally agreed to pay his victim 40 for full sexual intercourse, but after the pair walked from Southcote Road to St Clements Church in Boscombe, said he only had a 20 note.

The woman - who had returned to prostitution after three years in a desperate bid for money - performed a sex act on him.

However, as she attempted to leave afterwards, he grabbed her and told her he wanted full sex, viciously battering her after the rape.

She suffered injuries including bruising and damage to her teeth in the assault, which Zimbabwean Mutandi admitted at an earlier hearing before a judge.

The not guilty plea forced the woman to relive her ordeal during the trial, and she told jurors she had begged the defendant to kill her quickly.

Fern Russell, mitigating for Mutandi, said: "This was a business transaction that went wrong and Mr Mutandi reacted in a way which plainly caused damage to [the victim].

"He is not a man who has engaged in this kind of behaviour before."

Mutandi, of Walnut Walk, Kempston in Bedfordshire, has been living in the UK since he was nine.

He is currently training to become a pastor in custody, and was studying at Bournemouth University before being charged with rape.

Sentencing the defendant, Judge John Harrow said: "You are intelligent and from a good family, and you have brought shame and disgrace on yourself and, no doubt, you have upset all of your family."

He added: "You went to a cash machine and accompanied [the victim] to a churchyard.

"It was a secluded and dark area. The you made clear to her you were not prepared to pay the agreed price for full sexual intercourse. What happened then is that she submitted. She felt threatened, she felt afraid, she felt she had to agree to sex because she had no option."

Speaking after the sentence, Hayley Porter-Straw, senior crown prosecutor for the CPS Rape and Serious and Sexual Offences Unit, said: We would like to thank the victim who had the immense courage to report the crime to the police and who supported the prosecution.

Our thoughts are with the victim and hope that she will be able to move on from this terrible ordeal.