A SNARLING rapist who attacked a young mother while his grandmother slept in the next room has been jailed for five years.

Robert McQuire, 22, attacked the woman at his home following a night out in July last year.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how he snarled and growled as he sank his teeth into the woman's skin while forcing himself on her.

Roger Elsey, prosecuting, told the court at an earlier hearing: "He had sexual intercourse with her without her consent. He was snarling and growling and biting as he did so. She told him to get off but he wouldn't."

The court heard how McQuire's grandmother, who has since died, was forced to go into the room in a bid to stop the attack.

McQuire, of Marx Crescent, South Stanley, County Durham, was arrested and denied raping her.

But after at his trial in May, the jury found him guilty of rape and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Judge David Wood jailed him for five years.

His barrister, Roger Moore, told the court how McQuire has always had always protested his innocence.

Mr Moore said: "There is regret on his part for the woman's position. He is concerned about the distress she has spoken of.

"This lady was back at his home and it is quite clear, I would submit, that naked, in the bed, intercourse was expected, but he came home in a certain state of mind which led to the offence."

McQuire will be registered as a sex offender for life.