A "FRIEND" who raped a sleeping woman in her own bed is today beginning five years in jail.

The 22-year-old shop employee believed that Gregory Mark Betts, 45, was a trusted and valued friend, York Crown Court heard.

But he raped her as she slept - and then he put her through the ordeal of giving evidence, and lied about her in the witness box.

"There is absolutely no mitigation," said Judge Jim Spencer QC, as he jailed Betts for five years and put him on the sex offenders' register for life.

Betts, of Curzon Terrace, South Bank, denied rape, but was convicted unanimously at the end of a two-day trial on what the judge called "the clearest evidence".

Speaking quietly and at times having to pause to compose herself, the woman told the jury how she and Betts had known each other for two or three years and had a good, platonic relationship.

On April 28, after an evening out in the city centre together, she allowed him into her shared house for a cup of tea, and yielded to his suggestion that he sleep in her bedroom.

She made a bed for him on the floor and made it quite clear that she was not interested in sex with him.

She went to bed in her work clothes and even delayed going to sleep until she believed he was asleep. But she woke in the early hours to find him raping her. Betts was naked and he had half-stripped her.

When he realised that she was awake he jumped off her and pretended that nothing had happened.

But she threw him out of the house, went to a housemate for help, and later that day went to the police with her boyfriend.

"You pretended to be her friend, and yet when you had the opportunity, and she was in bed and asleep you took advantage of your position and raped her," the judge told Betts.

Betts had claimed in the witness box that the woman had led him on, taken him straight up to her bedroom on arrival in the house, and within 30 minutes had undressed and was inviting him to perform intimate acts upon her in bed.

Updated: 09:27 Saturday, December 10, 2005