A PREDATOR who raped his vulnerable victim in a car park after offering her a lift home has been jailed for eight years.

Joe Jordan stopped his car in Parkeston Road, Harwich, having noticed the victim at the side of the road.

At around 7.55pm on July 17, 2018, the 24-year-old offered to give her a lift home but instead drove to a car park and raped her.

Just under an hour later, Jordan, of Barrington Road, Colchester, abandoned her near to her house.

When the victim collapsed on to the pavement a neighbour called paramedics, who noticed she was missing clothing from the lower half of her body.

DNA linked Jordan to the sex assault and he was arrested and charged with rape.

He did not own the car he was driving and was also charged with driving whilst disqualified, taking a motor vehicle without consent and driving without insurance. He admitted all three charges.

A jury found him guilty of rape after a trial at Ipswich Crown Court in April.

Passing sentence at the same court yesterday, Judge Rupert Overbury said Jordan deliberately took advantage of the “extremely drunken state” of the victim.

He said: “The victim described herself not being able to remember from leaving her mother’s address to waking up in hospital the next day because she had drunk so much.

“She said the trial was ‘like living through a terrible film except it was real’.

“She has had to wait for the outcome of the trial to move on with her life.”

Richard Conley, mitigating, said Jordan, a father-of-one with another child on the way, had a number of positive character references and was a hard worker.

“It appears he is a young man who is more than capable of applying himself to his work and friends,” he said.

Jordan was jailed for eight years for rape. For the driving offences he received no separate penalty but was disqualified from driving for six years.

Investigating officer Det Con Dianne Smith, said: “There is no question that Jordan’s actions that night were abhorrent.

“Other witnesses who saw the victim that evening maintain that she was in an extremely vulnerable state, and he chose to exploit that. He’s a dangerous individual.

“Jordan will remain on the sex offender’s register for life as a stark reminder of the consequences of this unforgivable assault."