A rapist has been jailed for 12 years after attacking a churchgoing woman at knife-point in her home.

A jury of seven women and five men took two hours to find Wayne Eiffert guilty of indecent assault and rape.

They heard how the 22-year-old from Ilford had broken into the Chelmsford home of the churchgoer, held a knife to her throat and subjected her to a terrifying ordeal.

Sentencing Eiffert to three years imprisonment for an indecent assault on the same woman in 1996, and 12 years to run concurrently for the rape on September 6 last year, Judge Benjamin Pearson called his crimes "abhorrent".

He added: "You knew she was vulnerable. A woman living alone and an alcoholic who no-one, you thought, would believe."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.