AN ILLEGAL immigrant who tied up and repeatedly raped a foreign student after tricking her into viewing his bedsit has been caged for nine years.

Polish tailor Andrezej Kunowski, 45, of Twyford Avenue, Acton, was sentenced by Judge Jeremy Roberts QC at the Old Bailey on Friday after being found guilty by a jury last month.

The court heard how Kunowski led his victim into his flat after claiming he had a room for rent. The young woman, who weeks earlier had arrived in the UK from Korea, was throttled, bound with rope and subjected to a degrading three-hour ordeal.

Kunowski claimed she agreed to sex as a "thank-you" for helping her find accommodation but was found guilty of the attacks.

In court, Judge Roberts told Kunowski: "You kept this young woman a prisoner for a number of hours, you throttled her in order to carry out the rape and you tied her arms up.

"You had found her in circumstances such that you were preying on vulnerable young women."

The Korean student was approached by Kunowski at Ealing Broadway Tube station while waiting for a friend in September last year.

He noticed she was looking at adverts for rooms to rent and claimed there was a vacant bedsit at his nearby flat, the court was told.

The court heard how Kunowski led the student into his ground floor bedroom before locking the door behind him. She said she wanted to go back to meet her friend but he told her to relax and lie down.

Alexandra Lewis, prosecuting, said: "It was at that moment that, without any warning, the defendant pushed her back on to the bed. When she tried to resist him the defendant put his hands around her throat and began to exert pressure he was strangling her."

Kunowski ignored the young woman's pleas and pushed her away when she tried to fight him with a ballpoint pen. He then tied her hands together with rope, the court heard.

The jury heard that over the next three hours the woman was repeatedly sexually assaulted and was only allowed to leave the flat after promising to phone her attacker the following day.

Kunowski, giving evidence, said the woman had consented to sex. He claimed he lent over to kiss his victim and was met by no opposition or resistance.

Kunowski was found guilty of three rapes, two indecent assaults, false imprisonment and attempting to choke.