A TEENAGE rapist who assaulted a girl three times in one night has been locked up for seven years.

Matthew Freeman, 19, burgled a home at knifepoint before sexually assaulting the young woman, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Freeman, of Marten Road, Chepstow, had taken a cocktail of mephedrone and alcohol when he "wreaked havoc" on November 3 last year, the court heard.

He at first hit two people then broke into a house threatening its occupants with a knife, the court was told.

The young woman convinced him to surrender the blade that he had but he then subjected her to a sexual assault and raped her twice.

He had told her he still had another blade on his person, the court was told.

The court heard Freeman locked up the occupants of the house with a key then made off with a laptop.

Freeman pleaded guilty to one count of burglary, one of affray, one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and a further count of assault by beating.

He denied one count of sexual assault and two counts of rape but was found guilty of the three charges after a trial on July 10.

Sentencing him to seven years in a young offender institution, Judge Philip Richards told him: "From what I have read you are not a person without abilities.

"It is about time you started using those abilities in society rather than wreaking havoc as you did on that particular night."

Defence barrister, Marian Lewis, said in mitigation her client had shown genuine remorse, pointed to his youth and immaturity and stressed he had no previous convictions.

She added that the sexual offences had lasted for a very short period of time and he was determined to address his offending behaviour.

He was given five years for the three sexual offences plus four months for ABH and assault by beating, to run concurrently, and another two years for the burglary and affray offences.

He will have to spend half his sentence sentence in a young offender institution before he can be released.

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