A man was jailed for 12 years today for dragging a woman to the ground and raping her four times in a horrendous attack.

The 24-year-old victim had been on her way home from Millennium New Year celebrations when he raped her and forced her to perform other sex acts during an ordeal which lasted almost an hour.

Paul Reynolds, 34, of no fixed address, had denied the four counts of rape but was found guilty by a jury in December last year.

Sentencing him at Lewes Crown Court today Judge Richard Brown said: "Everyone in this court understands the traumatic effect this has had and will continue to have on the victim's life. I doubt she will ever recover from the traumatic events of that night.

"The seriousness of this event led to an expert psychologist to describe you as a dangerous offender, who presents a high risk of re-offending.

"It's my duty to protect as far as I can as long as possible other vulnerable women from the substantial risk posed by you".

The woman had been living in temporary accommodation in Hove and spent Millennium night in the Old Steine in Brighton with a group of friends.

She was walking home alone when she met a man in Sackville Road and asked him for directions.

He walked her along some streets until they reached Aldrington Day Care Centre in Hove and he suggested a short-cut.

He put his hand over her mouth and dragged her to the ground where he forced her to perform sex acts and raped her four times.

Reynolds, who had been living on a cliff top at Brighton Marina, was arrested in April 2000.

Following publicity about the rape a woman spotted a man living on the cliff top at Roedean who matched the rapist's description.

Police found him sleeping there under a sheet of tarpaulin.

DNA samples matched him to his victim, however during the trial he said he had had no contact with anyone at the time of the attack and said taped police interviews had been tampered with. He also disputed the DNA sample.

Reynolds, who has been in custody since April last year, was born in Brighton, left school at 16 and worked most of his life as a cleaner on the railways.

When he lost his job six years ago he started living rough.

Police found him difficult to track down and decided to take DNA samples from his parents.

The results came back showing that the odds it was not him were nine million to one.

It was the first time any force in Britain had identified an offender through the DNA profiles of his parents.