A woman went out for her firm’s Christmas celebration and was “taken advantage of” sexually by one man before being raped by another, a court heard.

The victim had been with colleagues for a meal and to bars.

She struck up a conversation with Christopher Smith, then 20, out on his works party.

She went back to his hotel room and woke up in the morning to discover she was naked from the waist down and must have had intercourse with him.

Maidstone Crown Court was told that she had been sick all over the room and in a panic Mr Smith called his boss Alan Nightingale for help.

It was when Mr Smith and others left the room that Nightingale took advantage of the woman and raped her, a jury was told.

Now he has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years after a judge said the attack was “a gross breach of her vulnerable condition”.

Caroline Knight, prosecuting, said the woman went out with colleagues in Ashford.

While at a club, she met Mr Smith, who worked for Nightingale’s family gas engineers firm. Also there was Nightingale and his two sons.

The woman later recalled telling colleagues she was leaving with Mr Smith.

“She had no recollection of leaving the bar and no recollection of what happened after,” said Miss Knight.

“The next thing she remembered was waking up in a single bed at 6.50am. She had consumed a fair amount of alcohol.”

Mr Smith had phoned Nightingale at 2am and told him he had slept with the woman and she had been sick everywhere.

Nightingale and others went to the room. The woman was lying on the bed. Nightingale stayed in the room alone with the woman to clear up the mess.

But, said the prosecutor: “That was not all Mr Nightingale was doing. He, in fact, had sexual intercourse with her and it was with a young girl who was ill, recovering from alcohol and in no state to give her consent.”

She went home and did not go into work the next day.

“She later had a flashback memory of what happened,” said Miss Knight.

Nightingale, a 37-year-old married father-of-five, at first denied having sex with the woman.

But three weeks later he contacted the police and said he wanted to tell them he had lied and did have sex with her.

He said he had sex with the woman’s consent.

He added that she went to sleep and he left.

Nightingale, of Acorn Close, Park Farm, denied rape but was convicted by a jury of six men and six women by an 11-1 majority.

Dominic Webber, defending, said Nightingale was a family man who previously had an unblemished record.

“On any view, this was out of character,” he said.

“He was plainly influenced by his own consumption of alcohol.

“If he hadn’t gone back to the hotel, he would never have been in this situation. He hadn’t set out to end up in that situation.

For more on this story, including an exclusive interview with Nightingale's victim, see this week's Kentish Express