A man who drugged and raped men he met on Grindr has been jailed for 23 years.

Sam Ashley, also known as Sam Davis, sexually assaulted four men in a number of incidents spanning six months, Portsmouth Crown Court heard.

One victim was a student at the University of Portsmouth who allegedly “blacked out” and woke up to find Ashley having sex with him.

The victim said Ashley poured him a glass of cider as he watched football on TV.

He said: “I had a couple of sips, it wasn’t even a quarter of the glass. I sort of felt a bit shaky and wobbly then, not starting to spin but like I was on a boat in the middle of the sea.”

It was heard that the two went to Ashley’s bedroom and started kissing which they were both “OK with”, but then everything went blank.

He said: “We kissed, it went blank, the next thing I remember – he was behind me and we were having sex.

“He was quite forceful and I remember I sort of gripped the pillow and I was more concentrating on trying to figure out where I was and just stop the room spinning.

“I just wanted the room to stop spinning so I could figure out what was going on. Things went black again and he was pushing my head down on to his penis.”

One of his other three victims was a HIV sufferer who “lost count of the number of times he said no” and spiked another with a cup of tea.

Drugs were found in the rapist's bedside table when he was arrested.

Ashley was found guilty of four charges of rape, four counts of administering a substance with intent and two charges of attempted rape.

Today (June 4), Ashley was found guilty and jailed for 23 years as he was branded “dangerous, calculating and manipulative”.

He was banned from using the dating app again and will have to inform police if he wants to form a sexual relationship.

Judge David Melville QC said: “You made every step which was needed, so far as you saw it, in your warped way of thinking in order to overcome their reluctance and allow you to get up close when their barriers were down.

“There's a pattern of behaviour here - it's dangerous in my judgment.

“There you are, just imagine, you found it possible to get those drugs, you used them when you wanted to on innocent victims, one of whom was already seriously ill.

“You took serious advantage of them and of course that was repeated on four occasions, all put into effect to make it easy for your by the use of the Grindr website, an easy way to meet those in the gay community.

“And of course if you met with reluctance you had a wheeze, a final one - you told them you were dying of cancer. This was calculated behaviour, it was deliberate and awful.”

It was also revealed in court Ashley had been convicted in 2013 of two charges of indecent assault against a boy under the age of 14.