'Tape rape' man guilty

Police phone operators listened to the attack as it happened

A man was found guilty of rape - after a jury was played a tape recording of his victim being attacked.

Mark Branker was found guilty of rape by the jury at Leicester Crown Court on Friday.

The 29-year-old from The Lawns, Hinckley, Leicestershire, was warned by a judge that he faces a life sentence.

His victim had dialled 999 on her mobile phone as he began to assault her at a remote beauty spot, the court was told.

He knocked the phone from her hand but did not realise the call had been connected.

'Dangerous man'

Police telephone operators recorded the 15-minute long rape and its aftermath - during which Branker blurted out: "What have I done?"

Branker pleaded his innocence - insisting the woman had agreed to have sex with him in the early hours of 9 March last year.

The court heard, after Branker was found guilty, that he had previous convictions for robbery, assault, burglary, kidnap and false imprisonment.

Judge Peter Morrell told him he had been found guilty of "vile conduct" and was obviously a "very dangerous man indeed".

He said he had listened to the tape of the attack "in horror" and added he was considering a life sentence.

The jury heard how Branker struck after the pair met by chance at the Groove nightspot in Hinckley.

He offered the woman a lift home but instead drove her to the remote beauty-spot, Burbage Common.