A Margate man – high on a cocktail of drink and drugs – saw a distressed woman in a public telephone box and then tried to rape her.

But a judge heard that the victim of predator Daryl Pink, 20, had been calling the emergency services after taking an overdose and had been pleading for help.

A court was told that the sex-crazed Pink asked her for sex, and when she turned down his request he attacked her.

Pink, of Rowe Close, Margate, wept in the dock at Canterbury Crown Court as his barrister told how he was now “thoroughly ashamed of his behaviour”.

Now Pink, 20, who claims he has limited recollection of his actions, has been sent to a young offenders institute for 40 months after admitting attempted rape.

Canterbury Crown Court that the youngster was a “talented artist and excellent scientist” who had thrown it all away.

"If you had not taken drugs that night and if you had not acquired a drugs habit, it is difficult to imagine you would have committed this crime..." - Judge Heather Norton

His barrister, Simon Taylor, added: “He feels genuine remorse. It is rare that someone comes to court and acknowledges his wrongdoing.

“This guilty plea is going to change his life.”

Mr Taylor said Pink came from a difficult background and had “pulled himself up” and struggled to make something of himself.

Martin Yale, prosecuting, told how the victim had gone to a telephone kiosk in Millmead Road, Margate, in July in the early hours of the morning.

Pink had taken cocaine and alcohol before he passed the stricken woman – and went up to her to ask for sex.

And when she tried to flee, Pink tried to pull her on to the ground and pull off her clothes and rape her.

Fortunately, her screams were heard by neighbours who came to her rescue as Pink fled the scene – but he was later arrested after his DNA was found on her clothes.

Judge Heather Norton told him: “If you had not taken drugs that night and if you had not acquired a drugs habit, it is difficult to imagine you would have committed this crime.”

She added: “But this is a very, very serious offence.

“You came across this woman, who was on her own in a phone box in the early hours of the morning.

“Unknown to you, she was particularly vulnerable and in a state of some distress that night, having taken drugs herself, and that was the reason she was making that telephone call.”

The judge told him that friends and employers regarded him as a “polite and hard-working young man”.

She added: “But your victim has been left frightened and nervous to go out on her own.”

Pink was ordered to sign the Sex Offences Register.

As he was led away to the cells, a woman in the public gallery shouted: “I love you. Love you, mate.”