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A carer who raped a woman and sexually assaulted another has been jailed.

Ashley Dhliwayo, 32, who denied any wrongdoing, was convicted after two trials, the Manchester Evening News reports.

The jury hearing his first trial failed to reach a verdict, but he was found guilty of single counts of rape and sexual assault after a retrial at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.

Both victims were forced to give evidence and relive their ordeals in court twice as a result.

One was in court for the sentencing hearing, and broke down in tears as Dhilwayo was led away from the dock by security staff to start his jail term.

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Judge Angela Nield said Dhliwayo, of Mayfield Road, Whalley Range, had shown a ‘pattern of increasing sexual behaviour’ before he committed the attacks in the Trafford area.

She said Dhliwayo, a refugee from Zimbabwe, gave the first victim ‘unwanted sexual attention’ before he sexually assaulted her.

Judge Nield said: “You suggested that you wanted to have fun, despite her protestations, her shock, her slapping you away. It seemed to you a surprise that she did not wish to go on.”

The court heard she didn’t immediately make a complaint.

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But Judge Nield added: “You went on, only weeks later, to commit a very much more serious offence of rape. You forced your attention on her despite her protestations and despite the fact that she told you no and tried to prevent you.”

The court heard the rape victim was forced to endure a four-week course of anti-HIV treatment as a result.

In a statement, she told the court that the case has had a ‘huge impact’ on both her life and the lives of her family.