A 35-year-old man who raped a young prostitute while holding a respectable job at a Kent hospital has been jailed for six years.

The victim had claimed that Samir Abdelrahman, of Canterbury Street, Gillingham, had forced her to have sex as he held a gun to her head. A jury of eight women and four men acquitted him of possessing an imitation firearm at the time but convicted him of rape.

At Maidstone Crown Court, Judge Andrew Patience, QC, told Abdelrahman: "Rape is an unforgivable crime. You have been found guilty on clear evidence. Whatever your reason, you decided you were going to rape her."

The court heard that the petite victim, now an 18-year-old student, did not at first report the attack committed in 2002, but later confided in a young offender worker.

She told how she became a call girl at the age of 15 to pay for her £250-a-day crack cocaine habit.

She first encountered Abdelrahman when he had pulled up in his car near Rochester railway station and asked for 'business'.

"It was high risk," she said. "I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I got in and we discussed money. I decided to trust him."

She gave a detailed description of her client and the flat he took her to for sex, right down to having orange juice in the fridge.

"He told me he worked at Medway Maritime Hospital," she said. "He had a very bold face. I remember he was smart and naturally tanned. The car was spotless. He was very nice and treated me with respect, like a gentleman."

The teenager said Abdelrahman afterwards dropped her off back at the station. Later, she was at the same spot when he arrived in his distinctive turquoise-coloured car again and picked her up.

He drove her to a deserted industrial estate, parked and told her to get in the back. "I asked for money up front," she said. "He tried to make out he would give it to me afterwards, but I was persistent. He started getting angry.

"I went to go to the front seat and felt a hand on the back of my hair. He pulled me back very hard and I hit my head. It was such a shock because nothing like that had happened to me. I started crying. He was shouting, telling me to shut up.

"I was screaming and crying. I just wanted to go. Then I remember feeling a metal object on the side of my head, on my left temple. He was on top of me. My legs were cramped up. I didn't know if the gun was real but I wasn't going to take a chance."

The teenager said she did not tell anybody for some time but then confided in young offender worker Don Brown, who helped her get off drugs and give up prostitution.

She gave him the car registration number and then picked Abdelrahman out of an identity parade.

Abdelrahman denied the charges, claiming that he did not associate with prostitutes. But police had spotted the Medway Hospital nursing assistant, who previously worked as a paramedic in Kuwait, talking to a prostitute at the same spot where he picked up the victim.

The jury was out for three and a half hours before convicting Abdelrahman of rape by an 11-1 majority. His wife ran sobbing from the court when the verdict was announced.