A rapist ended up inadvertently drugging himself when his victim clocked his plan to spike her and swapped their drinks around.
Kevin Knox, 33, had raped the woman months earlier as she lay on her bed unable to resist after he’d spike her drink with sleeping tablets.
But this time she was ready and took matters into her own hands in order to put her attacker behind bars for 12 years.
She met Knox on an escort website and he said he would pay £1,750, although he had no intention of paying.
Prosecutor Gareth Roberts said Knox went to her flat in August last year ‘intending to have sex, whether she liked it or not and whether he was able to pay or not’.
He put a sleeping tablet into her drink, leaving her groggy and rendering her incapable. He then raped her in her own bed.
Two months later, he used a different number and called himself Danny, but the woman recognised him and took matters into her own hands.
He poured them both a drink and this time she swapped the glasses around so he drank the one he had spiked.
Mr Roberts said: ‘This time, in a strange turn of events, he ended up essentially drugging himself.’
She then drove him to a petrol station once he showed signs that the drugs had taken their effect.
He returned to her empty flat where he broke in through a window and took a knife from the kitchen.
Police found him wandering around in a communal area, stumbling around with the knife. He was arrested and the same drug was found in his body that had been discovered in his victim’s body after his first attack.
Defending him, Simon Christie said: ‘His parents are in court today, and others have supplied references speaking of the other side to the defendant – a respectable family man, a hard worker and a person who people can rely on.’
He has four previous convictions for eight offences including burglary.
In 2016 he was subjected to a sexual risk order for sexually exploitative behaviour towards adolescents and young females and his inappropriate sexual interests.
Judge Ian Harris said: ‘In my judgement, you never intended to pay her anything. You spiked her drink in the way she alleged and used violence on her to have intercourse with her.
‘She was incapable of fighting you off. She was trying to push you away, but you ripped her shorts off and were determined to have sexual intercourse.
‘Testimonials say what a great person you are and how honest, trustworthy and helpful in your community you are. From my observations, I do not find you to be honest, helpful or trustworthy.’
He was jailed yesterday and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.