A woman sat in a crown court witness box for a second time to see the rapist, who strangled her nearly to death, jailed for nine years.

The brave victim from Margate had been forced to relive her terrifying ordeal at a trial last year, which had to be stopped for legal reasons.

But as she was about to give evidence at a second hearing at Canterbury Crown Court, her attacker David Kennett, 25, changed his plea to guilty.

The woman then asked to sit in the witness box – shielded by curtains – to tell how the vicious sex attack had taken away her personality and her hope.

She had planned to read her victim impact statement to Judge Heather Norton but at the last moment broke down.

Prosecutor Dominic Connolly then read her words to the hushed court, telling of her of her nightmare.

She wrote: “It has been an emotional rollercoaster for me. I feel my sanity is not there

“When I look into the mirror, I can still feel and see the bruising. I have even, when showering, felt claustrophobic in my own skin. As a human being you are entitled to have hope. He has even taken this away from me..." - Kennett's victim

sometimes. When I look into the mirror, I can still feel and see the bruising. I have even, when showering, felt claustrophobic in my own skin.

“As a human being you are entitled to have hope. He has even taken this away from me.”

IT worker Kennett, whose bail address was in Sevenoaks, had admitted rape only after his lawyers sought a judge’s ruling on the maximum sentence his plea would bring. He also admitted assault.

The court had heard how after the attack, which involved her being punched, slapped, strangled and smothered with a pillow, the victim was found in a Margate street sobbing hysterically.

A forensic expert who examined her said the prolonged asphyxiation had posed a “significant” threat to her life.

The prosecutor said she had pleaded with her attacker to stop but he had ignored her cries.

Robert de Banzie, defending, said the rape happened after a drinking binge and Kennett claimed he could recall nothing of the incident.

“His Achilles heel is his use of alcohol,” he added.

But the court was told that as the victim asked a friend to “please call the police, he has raped me!”, Kennett was calling officers claiming that he had been the victim of an assault.

Mr Connolly said the rapist had also tried to get the victim to withdraw her complaint.

The judge told Kennett that the profound impact of what he did would remain with his victim “probably for most of the rest of her life”.