A customs officer at Dover who escaped arrest for the terrifying rape of a mother for more than six years before he was trapped by DNA evidence has been jailed for 12 years.

Kelvin Bennett had been deployed to help catch bootleggers smuggling alcohol and tobacco when he abducted the victim.

He grabbed her as she walked from a pub in Folkestone in the early hours of December 9, 2000, and bundled her into his car.

He took her to remote spots in the area and over an hour repeatedly raped her.

It was not until September, 2007, when Bennett’s ex-girlfriend made an allegation against him that his DNA was added to the national data base and a match was made with the victim.

Judge Philip Statman said the case illustrated "every woman's worst fear". Bennett, he said, was still in denial.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that Bennett was a "lady’s man" and claimed if he had sex with the woman it must have been consensual.

The single mother, then aged 21, was walking to her mother's home when Bennett was cruising in the area looking for sex.

He grabbed her and bundled her into his car.

She screamed for help. She was driven to lonely areas and raped three times in the back of the car.

At one point he told he he would have to kill her. He eventually dumped her and she went to a nearby house to get help.

Bennett, of Bordesley, Birmingham, denied kidnapping and three rape charges but was convicted by a jury last month.

Judge Statman told the bearded 45-year-old: "She feared for her life. She begged you to let her go.

"She pleaded with you that she had a child who needed a mother and you showed her absolutely no mercy.

"You illustrated by your conduct your control over her and then you dumped her in a country lane and drove off.

"You must have thought as the years went by that you had escaped justice.

"But for the re-investigation of this case by this county's cold case unit, you would have done so."

The judge said he had seen impact the attack had on the victim when she had to relive her ordeal in the witness box.

Cairns Nelson, prosecuting, said the woman told in an impact statement how she still suffered from depression and was seeing a psychiatrist.

"She is having great difficulty in carrying on her life," he added.