A 33-year-old man who raped a prostitute was today jailed for 30 months.

French cabinet maker Nicholas Cousins paid the woman £20, but would not let her go, pinned her down and covered her mouth to stifle her screams.

Jailing him at Oxford Crown Court, Judge Anthony King said: "This case is unusual in the nature of offences of rape but any woman is entitled at any stage to say 'no'."

Cousins, who raped the woman at a flat in Silkdale Close, Cowley, in February, was convicted after a trial in August. He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register.