A rapist who met his victim through the Tinder dating app has been jailed for five years.

Kristian Stevenson was convicted of forcing himself on the woman despite her making it clear she was not interested in sex with him at that time.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton told Teesside Crown Court Stevenson went to her home on their second date and “tried it on”.

Stevenson, of Northleach Drive, Hemlington, Middlesbrough, then raped and sexually assaulted her.

The judge told him: “She made it perfectly clear she was not consenting and you knew she was not consenting.”

The woman later texted Stevenson: “You did know at the time it was not what I wanted but you continued anyway.”

Stevenson replied: “I know, I shouldn’t have.”

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said the victim later told police: “I didn’t report it straight away because it didn’t sink in, what had happened.

“I tried to get on with my life and forget about it but it all got too much.”

There were angry scenes in the public gallery as he was jailed for five years, while Stevenson, sentenced via a prison videolink, held his head in his hands.

Chris Morrison, defending, said Stevenson was polite, hard-working and well-liked with no previous convictions.

After he was remanded in custody following the trial last month, Stevenson suffered a split ear and bruised jaw in a holding cell when he told other inmates why he had been jailed.

Mr Morrison told the court: “When he was called up to the counter, he was taken hold of from behind by the prisoners and knocked about in a most grievous fashion.”