AN attacker described as 'inhuman' after raping and beating a teenager leaving her with 75 injuries has been jailed for ten years.

Christopher Mills, 30, took his victim to a dirt track at Cox Green, Sunderland, where he stripped and humiliated her before raping her twice.

During the four-hour ordeal threw stones at the woman, who feared she would be killed, pulled out clumps of her hair and bit her face when she tried to struggle free.

At Newcastle Crown Court yesterday Judge John Evans branded the attack "inhuman".

Prosecutor Tim Gittens told the court how Mills had met the woman, who he knew, in Sunderland city centre in the early hours of August 27 last year after she had been on a night out with a pal.

After driving her to the secluded area Mills, who was in a relationship, stripped his victim and threw her clothes into his car.

Despite her crying hysterically the woman was then raped twice.

Mr Gittens said: "As soon as he finished he threw her to the ground and immediately began a vicious and prolonged beating of the cowering and naked complainant.

"He got on top of her, pinning her down, before grabbing her around the neck so hard she was struggling for breath and clearly frightened for her life at that stage.

"He let go and she began to scream, but he immediately put his thumbs in her mouth, pulling her lips as wide apart as he could to stop her making a noise before bending down and biting her.

"He pulled her about by the hair up and down the track and then forced her to sit at the side of the track for a prolonged period, hitting her every time she tried to say something, throwing lager over her then empty cans of lager once he had finished drinking from them."

The court heard how Mills drove off from the scene but realised his victim had climbed into a nearby field and was trying to flag down a police helicopter which was overhead.

But when the pilot failed to see her, Mills drove back to where she was, dragged her under a barbed wire fence and beat her again.

The court heard how at that point Mills became apologetic and allowed his victim to dress before putting the heater on in the car and driving her home.

Mr Gittens added: "An examination revealed 75 separate sites of injury across her head, body, arms and legs."

Mills, of Cheltenham Road, Sunderland, was arrested and initially claimed the woman consented to having sex with him and denied responsibility for her injuries.

He eventually pleaded guilty to two charges of rape and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on the day his case came to trial.

The victim is still receiving ongoing treatment for the stress and trauma caused by her ordeal.

Defence barrister Robert Woodcock said the only mitigating feature in Mills' case is his guilty plea.

Mr Woodcock said; "The defendant spared the complainant the ordeal of a trial and pleaded guilty."

Judge John Evans told Mills: "This undoubtedly must have been a dreadful experience. I don't know what caused you to behave in this outrageous way that night.

"The only way in which your behaviour that night can be described is inhuman."