A Derby man has been jailed for seven and a half years after raping a woman as she slept.

Derby Crown Court heard how David Smith, 53, of Allenton, took advantage of the victim as she lay vulnerable. The woman kept the sexual assault secret for several years before reporting it to the police.

Smith was arrested, questioned, and charged. In his pre-sentence report, he displayed an "entrenched attitude" in denying any wrongdoing, according to interviewing officers.

Sentencing Smith, Recorder Adrian Reynolds said: "When a judge has to sentence in a case like this, he or she has to take into account a number of things. Primarily, and I mean primarily, there is the extent to which you have ruined (the victim's) life and the enormity of that has to be factored in."

"She has waited a long time to get justice and I hope she feels she will get justice. But on the other hand, you have pleaded guilty to this and one thing that definitely does mean is that you have spared her having to give evidence and that means you will get credit because other people in the same position as you don't plead guilty and face their victims when they come to court and relive their horrors, being accused of lying, and that makes their ordeal immeasurably worse."

"You haven't done that. But what you did do is degrade and undermine her self-esteem, undermined her self-confidence and in her own words you have shown a complete lack of empathy. The fact is that although you have pleaded guilty to this matter you have not expressed any genuine remorse. You are a man in your 50s now and you have never been to prison before."

Smith, of Mowbray Street, pleaded guilty to rape. Lauren Fisher, mitigating, said that the victim did not have to come to court and give evidence. She said: "Of course this is an immediate custodial sentence, he has been aware of that since day one. He is well-supported by his family who have attended the vast majority of the hearings in this court."

"There are references from various members of his family and they speak of a different man to the one who appears before the court today."

In addition to the jail term, Recorder Reynolds ordered Smith to be placed on the sex offender register for life. He will serve two-thirds of his sentence - five years - before being eligible for release.