Rapist covered woman's mouth to silence her pleas

A rapist who put his hand over an 18-year-old woman's mouth to silence her pleas for him to stop has been jailed for three years.
Thomas English, from Darlington, was 20 when he ignored his victim repeatedly saying "no" part-way through consensual sex, Teesside Crown Court heard.
The offending emerged when English contacted police to say someone was demanding £500 from him or he would be reported for sexual assault.
English, now 24, initially denied rape but changed his plea to guilty on the second day of his trial.
The encounter in 2022 began as consensual but English refused to stop when the woman told him to, prosecutor Rebecca Brown said.
Instead, he placed his hand over her mouth and began getting rougher and more "forceful" before she was finally able to push him away, the court heard.
'Worried sick'
Several weeks later he received a message from a third party demanding he pay £500 or be reported to police, Ms Brown said.
English contacted police to report the message but officers also asked about the alleged sexual assault, which led them to interview the victim.
Messages were also found on English's phone in which he claimed he had "got lost in the moment" and did not hear the woman, to which she replied that was nonsense and she had told him to stop four times.
English also said he had been "worried sick" ever since and, when he looked in the mirror, all he could see was a rapist because that was what he had done to the woman, the court heard.
There was also a message in which English said he "felt awful" and "couldn't have been more apologetic".
'Rape is rape'
In a statement read to the court, the woman said the rape had "tainted" her view of intimacy forever and her later teenage years had been ruined by English.
She said she found peace knowing he could not hurt her or any other woman again.
In mitigation, the court heard it was "consensual sex gone too far" and English, of Bushel Hill Drive, was "bitterly ashamed" for his "vile" actions.
Judge Stephen Ashurst said English "selfishly ignored" the woman's wishes and "rape is rape".
He said English was an "intelligent young man" but was "relatively immature and naïve about certain emotional matters".
The judge also said the remorse English had expressed showed he had appeared to have learned from his "serious error".
English must also sign the sex offender register for life.