A man who raped a woman while she was ill in bed has been jailed.
Damian Collier attacked the woman in her own home in January.
The 29-year-old had gone round to help the woman with childcare as she was suffering from a flu-like virus and running a temperature.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, Collier was told he had committed a “serious and deeply unpleasant” crime and was jailed for 32 months.
The court heard Collier, from Fraserburgh, had originally denied the offence when questioned by police but later made several admissions to his support worker and friends expressing his “remorse”.
Advocate depute Jane Farquharson QC said: “On the night in question the complainer retired to her bed early as she was not feeling well. She describes having a high temperature and feeling hot.”
The woman told Collier she wanted to be left alone but he carried out a sex act and continued with the rape despite her telling him it was hurting, Ms Farquharson added.
She eventually managed to push him off and shouted: “Do you realise what you have just done?”
The court heard a friend found the woman looking “awful” afterwards and she said she had been raped. The victim later contacted police.
Collier was detained and when charged, told officers he had not done anything.
However, following an initial court appearance he returned to his accommodation and told a support worker: “I’m not going to lie to you. I did do it.”
Defence counsel Gareth Jones said Collier’s admissions in the wake of the offence provided the corroboration for the victim’s account.
Mr Jones said the crime was “out of character” for Collier who has no record of sexual offending and has not previously been in prison.
He said Collier accepted he was struggling to cope with addiction issues at the time, but added: “He does not blame drugs and alcohol for what happened. He takes full responsibility for what occurred.”
Judge Norman McFadyen said he would have jailed Collier for four years had he not entered an early guilty plea. He was put on the sex offenders’ register for an indeterminate period.
Detective Inspector David Crowther, from the public protection unit, welcomed the sentence and said: “Damian Collier is rightly facing the consequences of his truly predatory actions, taking advantage of his victim when she was in a vulnerable state.
“I hope that his conviction and sentence will serve to bring some form of closure to the victim, but I also hope that it sends a clear message to others that there is no place for this type of vile behaviour.
“Police Scotland treats all reports of sexual crime seriously, with the utmost professionalism and sensitivity, and we will thoroughly investigate in order to bring perpetrators of such crimes to justice.”