A MAN who gave a homeless woman a bed for a night and then attacked her has been jailed.

Jason Spayne, 32, met his victim in a pub when she was looking for a place to live.

The court was told he invited her to stay with him, but he had only one bed.

They both climbed in fully clothed, but she woke to find him indecently assaulting her.

Rod Hunt, prosecuting, said: "She made it clear when she got to the house that she wanted no sexual contact at all."

The woman, who had a serious illness, left the house crying and went to a hospital, where she was treated.

Spayne was arrested within hours and was charged with rape, Teesside Crown Court was told. His trial was abandoned in August.

Simon Reevell, in mitigation, said the couple had been kissing in a pub and that Spayne misread the situation because he had been drinking heavily.

Judge John Walford told Spayne: "However unwise her action was in spending the night at your home when she had just met you, she is entitled to look to the law for her protection. You abused the position in which you were in, having offered her accommodation on a strictly no-sex basis."

Spayne, of Valley Road, Northallerton, was jailed for 15 months after he pleaded guilty to indecent assault on December 9, 2003.

He was formally found not guilty of rape, which he had denied.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for seven years.