A YOUNG woman who was attacked and raped during a night out in Minehead was the victim of a convicted robber from Rumania.

Ioan Bucatariu, aged 23, was jailed for six years yesterday (Thursday) after Taunton Crown Court heard that the 22-year-old woman described how her life had been changed for the worse.

He had previously been jailed for three and a half years in Bucharest in 2004 and came to England last year to seek a better future, the court was told.

At 1.30am on July 5 he attacked his victim as she sat on a wall smoking near her home and talking to a friend on a mobile phone.

Her friend heard what happened as he sat beside her, asked for a cigarette and was told 'Do you mind not sitting there?', said Caroline Bolt, prosecuting.

Instead of moving away, he put his arm tightly around her neck so she was unable to breathe and blacked out, falling to the ground. When she came to, he pulled her up, picked up her phone and told her to stop crying.

He said everything would be OK if she did not scream and he would not kill her. He then forced her to walk to the dark area of a car park where she was pushed to the ground and made to commit a sex act on him.

Then he told her to lie down and be quiet before raping her and attempting to make her repeat the sex act on him, but she begged him to let her go and leave her alone. She was then told to get dressed and not tell anyone, and he left.

Her friend called the police and a neighbour, who saw a woman being forced into the car park, went down and found her in distress and saying she had been raped.

Bucatariu was traced to London through a combination of her mobile phone signal, her description of her attacker and CCTV of a man leaving the area in a vehicle.

The phone was found in his washbag and he admitted visiting a friend in Minehead but denied having had sex. Told of a DNA match to a probability of one billion to one, he made no comment.

In her victim impact statement, the girl said before the attack she had been happy-go-lucky, confident and easy going, working regular hours and able to chat to anyone.

"I would also be confident walking home on my own after an evening out, as I have always regarded Minehead as a safe family town. Since this happened to me things have completely changed ... It's completely knocked my confidence and I have become paranoid of people and being out. I have only been out once and then I left early, worried about my safety and paranoid about other people, particularly males," her statement continued.

She said it had also affected her relationship with her boyfriend and had affected her parents. She had also had to move home because she could not stand remaining in that area.

"I would want him to go to prison for as long as possible and be deported from this country," she added.

Noel Sweeney, defending, said Bucatariu had attempted suicide while serving his previous prison sentence and for the 108 days he had spent on remand in custody he had not had a single communication from his parents and four siblings. His cellmate was English and he was "incommunicado".

He was roofless and rootless, his family split apart and living in various European countries. He had come to this country seeking a good future and was riddled with remorse and shame.

Sentencing him to six years in prison on two offences of rape, Judge Stephen O'Malley said his victim had clearly suffered psychological damage to her confidence and attitude to other people.

He allowed credit for his plea of guilty and accepted his deep shame and remorse, and said he would be recommended for deportation after his sentence is served.