A rapist who was convicted in his absence after he skipped bail and went into hiding has been jailed for almost seven years.

Ryan Page was told by a judge he had shown no remorse or empathy for the victim.

The 21-year-old, of Woodlands Road, Ditton, failed to appear for his trial on in November last year and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Police eventually traced him to an address in Chatham and he was taken into custody.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Page went to the home of a woman he did not know particularly well in August last year.

Page went to a garage to get some cigarettes in the early hours of the next day because the woman only had two left.

While out, he sent her a text saying: “I would love to give you a kiss. What do you think?” The woman replied: “No.”

He sent her further messages along the same lines. When he returned, he asked if he could stay until the end of a television film.

He sat on the end of her bed watching the movie and then raped her, telling her: “It will be alright - between you and me.”

He added that she should get the morning after pill. Before leaving, he told her: “Delete them messages.”

She did not delete the text messages. She later went to her doctor and told him what had happened.

The next day she received a phone call from Page, claiming it was Maidstone police station and asking her if she had made an allegation.

Prosecutor Peter Alcock said Page had been given a 10-month suspended prison sentence for assault causing actual bodily harm eight days before committing the rape.

In June last year, he was jailed for battery.

Tom Little, defending, conceded there was little mitigation for the rape offence. He was willing to go on a sex offender programme.

Mr Little said a probation report stating Page was a high risk to women was “rather overstating the position”.

Page will be placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.

Judge David Griffith-Jones , jailed Page for six years for rape, eight months for breach of the suspended sentence and two months for the bail offence, all consecutive.