A woman raped twice by a man in a squalid caravan he crudely labelled his "shag pad" has finally seen her attacker brought to justice.

Robert Mills attacked his victim four years ago in the dirty and unkempt mobile home in New Romney after she accepted his offer to walk her home.

Having given evidence at Canterbury Crown Court - earning praise from a judge for her bravery in doing so - she returned on Friday to see the depraved 28-year-old jailed for more than eight years.

Mills had met the woman on a night out in New Romney in August 2019 but later, under the pretence of seeing her home safely, took her through woods where he pulled out a knife.

Then, once she found herself at a caravan in his father's back garden, she was ordered inside, told to strip and subjected to a "degrading and humiliating" ordeal.

The court heard the woman initially refused but, scared by the sight of a second knife on a counter and fearing he would kill her, she undressed.

Mills, of Hardy Road, Greatstone, then forced himself on her, ignoring her distressed sobs and repeated pleas to stop.

She desperately tried to fight him off, even scratching his face, but that was said to only "excite" him more.

The victim was eventually able to flee the caravan and phoned a relative "bawling her eyes out hysterically", a jury heard.

Mills was arrested a few hours later. Two knives were found - one in his jacket pocket and the other driven into the caravan toilet door.

He claimed however that he and the woman had "hit it off" and she had agreed to go back to his caravan, where they had consensual sex. He said she had even given him a love bite on his neck.

But jurors saw through his lies and in August he was convicted of two offences of rape after a retrial.

Now, having previously adjourned sentencing for reports, a judge has concluded Mills poses a high risk of serious harm to young women - a danger that was, she added, "unlikely to abate to any significant degree" while behind bars and would need close supervision on his eventual release.

Prosecutor Dominic Connolly told the jury that Mills and the woman had not known each other prior to meeting that night in a pub, where they drank together, kissed and swapped phone numbers.

Mills then offered to walk her home, saying he would take her via a shortcut through some woods.

However, en route he took a flick knife from his pocket and showed it to her, using the torch on his phone.

The court heard that when they emerged from the woods, the woman did not know her whereabouts and, led by Mills, ended up at his rundown caravan where the attack began.

Of the moment he pulled out the blade, the prosecutor told the court: "She explained how the knife scared her and she was scared he would kill her with it."

She later told police she had not had any conversation with Mills about going to his caravan to have sex.

After his arrest, he maintained the woman had agreed to have sex and did not cry or tell him to stop.

He admitted he carried a knife but said it was "for protection" and denied revealing it to her in the woods.

The jury at his first trial was discharged after failing to reach verdicts. He was eventually convicted on an 11-1 majority verdict.

The court heard Mills was a "heavy cannabis user" whose life was "in a state of crisis" at the time.

"He was drinking too much, abusing substances and suffering from psychosis as a result. His behaviour was out of control," explained John FitzGerald, defending.

"But it was a one-off, out-of-character incident - horrendous though it was - borne out of the exceptional and extreme circumstances of his life at the time."

Mills was jailed for eight-and-a-half years, of which he will have to serve at least two-thirds, with a further five-and-a-half years added to any licence period.

Passing what is known as an extended sentence for public protection, Judge Catherine Brown told Mills he had been "determined" to have sex and produced the knife knowing it would "terrify" his victim into complying with his demands.

"She had no reason to think that you were anything but a pleasant young man with whom she spent time that evening drinking and enjoying herself," said the judge.

"She accepted your offer to walk her home. She thought that you were being kind and that she would be safer than walking home alone. However, she was soon proved wrong."

"She has described in her moving statement how scared she was and the profound impact that these events had upon her...”

The woman was not in the courtroom itself for the hearing but watching via a TV link from a remote room in the building. The prosecutor outlined how "even the most mundane aspects" of her life had been affected since that night.

"She never feels safe outside and fears public spaces. She described how she cannot escape from the smell of her assailant," added Mr Connolly.

Judge Brown remarked it was "no surprise she was in a complete state and traumatised" by the time she did manage to escape the caravan.

"She has described in her moving statement how scared she was and the profound impact that these events had upon her," she told Mills.

"This was essentially a rape by someone who was a stranger to her in a location from which she felt at the time that she could not escape and it occurred when she was terrified because of the knife that you had shown her.

"She did, not surprisingly given the circumstances, suffer severe psychological consequences well beyond those to be expected as a consequence of any rape."

Judge Brown said that Mills's actions and lack of understanding were explained "to some extent" by his background, adding that she hoped he would be able to "address his issues and mature" while behind bars.

But she saved her final words for his victim, saying: "I hope that she is now able to get the counselling that she needs and, so far as possible, put this traumatic incident behind her.

"No young woman should have to go through what she did and I commend her bravery in seeing this case through, particularly since, through no fault of hers, she ended up having to give evidence twice."