An Essex dock worker who raped a drunk woman has been jailed for eight years by a judge who accused him of “treating her with utter contempt”.

Sentencing Joe Jordan, Judge Rupert Overbury said: "You had no regard for her as a human being. You simply used her for your sexual desires."

Jordan, 24, of Main Road, Harwich, denied raping the woman in July and was found guilty after a trial at Ipswich Crown Court.

In addition to being jailed he was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

During his trial the court heard that Jordan had pulled the drunk, semi-naked victim out of his car and "dropped" her on the pavement after raping her.

Witnesses saw a Ford Mondeo driven by Jordan stop in a street in Parkeston and watched him pull a woman out by her arms and drop her by the roadside.

"She was left lying on the ground with her skirt up revealing she had no underwear on," said Lesley Bates, prosecuting.

"She was unable to sit up, she couldn't speak other than to mumble and she had wet herself," she added.

Members of the public called an ambulance, and when the woman was taken to hospital her blood-alcohol concentration was four-and-a-half times the limit for driving.

Samples were taken and Jordan's semen was found on an intimate swab taken from her.

Miss Bates claimed the woman wasn't capable of consenting to sex because of her level of intoxication.

The court heard that the woman, who was described as a binge drinker, had visited a relative and they had shared a box of wine before she left at 7pm with a third of a bottle of vodka.

She was seen drinking from the bottle and swaying from side to side in Parkeston Road at 8pm by a woman who knew her and had stopped to see if she could help her.

At that moment another car pulled up and a man went over to the alleged victim and offered to take her home.

Forty minutes later the victim was seen being pulled out of Jordan's car and being "dropped" on the pavement, said Miss Bates.

Jordan denied raping the woman and said they had consensual sex. He described her as "a little drunk" and added: "It's not like she was out of it."