The parents of a woman raped in Maidstone’s Mote Park said they and their daughter had been left “devastated” by the attack.

The victim’s family issued a statement after Judge Martin Joy sentenced James McDonagh to nine years in jail. He will serve half of this in prison and the rest on licence.

Click here to read the court report.

After the sentencing Chief Superintendent Matthew Nix spoke outside Maidstone Crown Court on behalf of the woman’s family.

Reading the family’s statement statement, he said: “This assault on our daughter has left us as individuals and as a family totally devastated.

“Her decision to give evidence is to be applauded.

“Despite the trauma experienced in the assault she had to relive in detail [in court] the assault that took place by total strangers.

“We as a loving family must start again to rebuild our lives and carry on and put this dreadful situation behind us.”

Ch Supt Nix deemed the attack “cowardly” and said police would continue to hunt two men who held the victim down as McDonagh, 40, raped her in June 2008 as she slept under a tree in the park.

He said: “We will continue to work to identify the two other offenders. Somebody will know who these offenders are.

“He [McDonagh] was clearly the main offender but two others were involved and we would welcome information that may identify them.”

He added the nine-year sentence was “realistic”.

“The sentence was within guidelines. It’s a reasonable sentence.”

He added: “Incidents like this are very rare in Kent and especially Maidstone.”

McDonagh is from Coppermill Lane in Walthamstow, East London.

His wife Brigid attended the court hearing. She was reluctant to speak afterwards but continued to protest her husband’s innocence.

During the trial prosecutor Sarah Campbell described it as a “violent and nasty rape”.