A Kuwaiti migrant raped a stranger on a riverbank just weeks after being granted legal status in the UK, a court heard, as a judge asked for a pre-sentence report about his "attitude towards women".

Abdel-Aziz Al-Shamary's victim had left a pub in Darlington, County Durham, when Al-Shamary beat her and raped her on the grassy bank of the River Skerne.

Arresting officer PC Jackie Mallows told the court: "He kept telling me not touch him and he also said "I will not speak to you, you are a woman - in my country we speak to men."

A jury convicted Al-Shamary by a majority verdict after almost five hours deliberation.

Sentencing was adjourned for three weeks by Judge Sean Morris who told jurors: "I would like to see a report looking into his attitude towards women."

He said an extended sentence may be an option he could consider.

Al-Shamary, 21, entered Britain illegally in 2015 over land.

He fought to be allowed to stay and received leave to remain as little as two weeks before the savage assault in May of this year.

Teesside Crown Court heard his bloodied and sobbing victim, a white British woman in her thirties, was found lying face down with her jeans and pants pulled around her ankles.

Heavily intoxicated Al-Shamary was arrested nearby and refused to allow a female police officer to touch him.

In police custody he was heard to yell: "Do you know Saddam Hussein? I am Saddam Hussein, I will not talk to you, you are a woman."

He also shouted on two occasions the words "Bitch country" while he was being taken into custody, the court heard.

Earlier in the evening he had left Gemma Stirling shaking with fear after confronting her as she walked along the street with a male friend.

He called her an "ugly bitch, " adding she was "not worthy."

Ms Stirling told the court : "As he walked away he said 'Allah is going to get you.' "

The complainant in the case gave a harrowing account of her ordeal, which she said took place as she left The Greyhound pub in Darlington on a night in May this year.

She told police officers in a video statement played to the jury: "I left the pub and he came over to me and pushed me over on the grass of the river bank.

"I fell face-down with my arms in front of me and I turned to look at him and he punched me in the face.

"He punched me again with his fist and hit me on the nose, when I put my hand to my face it was covered in blood.

"Then he got on top of me from behind, I could feel his weight on me. He pulled down my jeans and my pants and I could feel that he was raping me."

She added: "He told me not to say anything or he would come back and hurt me. He made me feel horrible, scared and frightened."

Two women passing in a car saw what was happening on the bank of the River Skern in the centre of the town and circled back to help.

Rebecca Wynn and Natalie Curry found the victim lying covered in blood where she had been left by her attacker and dialled 999.

A recording was played to the court and the victim could be heard sobbing in the background as she helped the two friends recount what happened to the operator.

Ms Curry said that when she had driven past them, Al-Shamary had been pulling the women down the bank by her wrists.

She described what she saw when she returned to the scene, by which time the attacker had fled.

She said : "She was crying hysterically with blood all over her and she was screaming that he had said he would kill her if she told anyone.

"She said that he had been raped, that he had been inside her and that he would come back."

Earlier in the trial prosecutor Paul Abrahams referred to sex videos Mr Al-Shamary had been watching on his mobile phone at about 7.30pm that day.

He said: “He was watching people having sex outdoors. It is relevant as when confronted with a lone female he raped her.”

DNA from the victim was found on Al-Shamary's underwear, the court was told.

Al-Shamary said he fell into conversation with the woman and was "curious to know more about her, in a normal way."

But she told him to go away and he raised a hand to her face, causing her to fall over, he claimed, adding that it was his efforts to help her up that led to her jeans and pants falling down.

Al-Shamary, 21, of Pensbury Street, Darlington, who had been drinking from two bottles of Jack Daniels whisky, denied rape and an alternative count of attempted rape around midnight on May 16/17 this year.