A “SEXUAL” predator’ has been found guilty of raping a drunken woman after she had been out celebrating the end of the first Covid lockdown.

Jason Leat met the victim after they had been drinking in a pub in Crediton on the first night it had been open for more than three months.

He raped her after they went back to her home with another friend to carry on drinking into the early hours of July 5, 2020.

The other guest left and the woman went to bed expecting Leat to sleep elsewhere.

She said he insisted in joining her in bed and went on to sexually assault her despite her moving a laptop into the bed to act as a barrier between them. She woke up twice to find him touching her private parts and he went on to rape her twice.

Leat claimed the woman had led him by the hand into the bedroom and been an enthusiastic participant in sex but his account was rejected by a jury at Exeter Crown Court.

He was also found guilty of sexually assaulting a female customer at a pub in Crediton 13 days after first set of offences.

In that attack, he grabbed and squeezed her breast as he walked past her.

During a week-long trial, the prosecution said the two offences indicated that he was a sexual predator who paid no heed to the women’s wishes.

Leat, aged 28, of Dartmoor View, Black Dog, near Crediton, denied but was found guilty of two rapes, sexual assault, and two assaults by penetration against one woman and a single sexual assault against the second.

He was remanded in custody by Judge James Adkin and told he will receive a jail sentence “that is measured in years rather than months”.

He adjourned sentence until next month to allow the victims time to write personal statements which explain the impact Leat’s offending has had on them.

Mr Tim Parker, prosecuting, said the victim of the rapes did not report it to police immediately but told close friends, who gave evidence that she was deeply distressed in the days after the sexual assaults.

She summoned the courage to come forward a few weeks later and gave a video recorded interview in which she said she had told Leat repeatedly that she was not interests in sex and had tried to push him off her during the rapes.

The second victim posted an item on Instagram shortly after the assault in which she described Leat as being a sexual predator when he was drunk.

Leat denied all the allegations and said the first woman had flirted with him at the pub and invited him back to her home before leading him into her bedroom, stripping, and initiating sex.

He said: “We started kissing, cuddling and touching each other. She did not say she did not want it to happen. I did not force myself on her. She was very active, she wasn’t just lying there. She was enjoying it..”

He also denied assaulting the other woman, saying that all that happened between them was a hug.