A courageous teenager has been praised after using her mobile phone to record a horrific attempted rape on her in Thanet.

The 18-year-old captured a single image of her vile attacker which allowed him to be traced to London and arrested.

The 90-second footage of the “ruthless and determined” assault was played to a judge at Canterbury Crown Court today who said: “In 13 years on the bench I have seldom ever heard a more harrowing incident of the brave victim screaming in terror and pleading for it to stop and the awful suffering she endured.

“That will live with me for a very long time.

“If anyone needed a wake up call as to just how horrific the offence of attempted rape is...then this was it.”

Judge James O’Mahony then gave her attacker, Bangladeshi restaurant worker Ashraf Miah, of no fixed address, an extended 13 and a half year jail sentence for the attempted rape.

He was told the 34 year old, who had been working in restaurants in Ramsgate, was in the UK illegally after being granted a one-year work visa 10 years ago.

The judge said he would be recommending Miah be deported at the end of his sentence, telling him: “You are highly dangerous...you have no business being here.”

The victim sat in the public gallery, protected by specially-trained police officers, as prosecutor Peter Alcock told how she had been walking home at 2am on September 30 last year.

She had been in the Royal Pub House and was heading along Sion Hill when Miah stalked her for 200 yards.

He asked her where she was going and as she answered he grabbed her and sexually assaulted her as she desperately fought back.

Mr Alcock said she then managed to use the camera in her phone to record the attack as Miah continued his rape attempt as he threw the terrified teenager to the ground.

It was only when her pitiful screams – caught on her mobile – were heard by people living in nearby flats forcing Miah to halt his attack and run away.

The victim’s sobbing pleas: “Get off me...get the f*** off me, get off me.....arghhhhhhh. Help!” were played to the court where Miah repeatedly looked up at the public gallery where his victim sat out of sight.

"In 13 years on the bench I have seldom ever heard a more harrowing incident" - Judge James O’Mahony

Mr Alcock said Miah had come to the UK in 2006 and had been given permission to work for a year but became “an overstayer”.

Simon Taylor defending said Miah, who admitted attempted rape, and two sex assaults, had behaved in a “disgraceful way in committing a disgusting criminal offence.”

He then praised the victim for her “great fortitude, courage and great sense in recording it”.

Mr Taylor added that Miah had “very little contact with females, which it seems was the trigger to him committing this deplorable act.”

Miah was jailed for nine and a half years – and won’t be eligible for parole until 2024 at the earliest – and then serve another four years on licence when he is released.