A former Dartmouth footballer has been jailed for raping a friend after he was trapped into making a text speak confession by his victim.

Adam Hawthorn said he had no memory of attacking the young student at his seaside flat and shrugged off her first text with a message by replying: 'LOL just gotta laugh about it. All a blur really.'

When the 18-year-old explained what he had done in a series of detailed texts his response was: 'OMG I don't know what to say.'

He went on to apologise, say he felt guilty, and beg her: 'Please don't be silly and report it.'

The adult care worker was found guilty and jailed for seven years after a judge advised the jury to look at the messages which included one saying: 'Feel so guilty and bad now.'

Hawthorn, 22, of St Austell, Cornwall, who was living in Torwood Gardens Road, Torquay, at the time, denied rape and attempted rape but was found guilty and jailed for a total of seven years by Judge Francis Gilbert QC at Exeter Crown Court.

He was a talented amateur footballer who has played in defence for Buckland Athletic, Brixham United and Dartmouth AFC.

His family sobbed in the public gallery as the judge told him: 'You were intent on sexual gratification. She kissed but said that was enough as she was fully entitled to do.

'This is not a case in which you were in any way led on by her. The evidence and your conduct in the witness box demonstrated you to be a violent sexual predator who has no regard for the feelings for the target of his sexual desires.

'You would not take no for an answer. She said she thought you were trying to kill her.

'You have demonstrated no regret or sympathy and have claimed instead she was fully consenting and lying to cover up her own sexual behaviour and infidelity to her boyfriend.

'This is one of the more serious and extreme cases of sexual violence I have had to deal with in many, many years.'

During a three-day trial at Exeter Crown Court, the jury was told how the victim met Hawthorn at college and at a gym where she trains in martial arts.

They met up after she had been to a nearby club and they exchanged messages.

They drank together at his flat and kissed but she decided to go home and he then grabbed her round the throat and dragged her into his bedroom.

She told the jury he subjected her to a brutal ordeal in which he pushed her face down into his duvet as he attacked her from behind while telling her to shut up and stop crying.

She said she eventually pushed him off and slapped him and this made him stop his attack.

He went to sleep and she found the key to his flat and fled.

He said she had agreed to sex and only complained she had been raped because she had a regular boyfriend and felt bad about what she had done afterwards.

He said she had shown him some wrestling moves while they were drinking in the kitchen and was capable of fighting him off.

He said he apologised in the texts because he thought he may have been rough and forceful during sex and because he wanted to assuage her feelings.

In his summing up, Judge Francis Gilbert QC advised the jury to study the texts to help them determine who was telling the truth.

He told them: 'You may want to ask yourselves about the texts. She says there that it was not consensual and described what he did to her.

'You may want to ask whether he at any stage says she consented or that she initiated oral sex. Does he at any stage say he believed she consented?

'You will not find any of those answers. It is something you may want to consider.'

The victim sent the first text after getting a taxi straight to the local hospital where she told a nurse she had just been raped. It said they needed to talk about what happened.

He did not reply until he woke up at 10.04 and asked her how she was. She replied three hours later saying she could not believe what he had done.

Hawthorn then replied: 'LOL just gotta laugh about it. All a blur really.'

Which prompted her to text him: 'Except I'm covered in bruises and bits of hair are coming out and told you to stop.'

He replied that he didn't think they had been that rough and she told him how he had held her face down on the pillow and she had tried and failed to push him off.

She told him: 'We weren't rough. I didn't have any choice.'

He responded: 'Feel so guilty and bad now. I'd never hurt anyone.' His next text read: 'OMG I don't know what to say. It's not even like I can say sorry because I'm at work. I was hammered. It was not like me.'

She told him she had asked him to stop and texted: 'It was not even consensual.' He said: 'I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry, I'm embarrassed."

His reply in two texts read: 'I'd never mean to put that on anyone. You are such a top girl.

'Can we wipe the slate clean and forget about it. Is there anything I can do?

'Please don't be silly and report it. It was something I genuinely don't remember doing. I'm so sorry to put something like that on you.'

The girl replied: 'That's how much you hurt me.'

He texted back: 'I'm totally disgusted with myself. I feel sick and worried for you."

She went back to the hospital and asked a doctor to call the police less than an hour later.