A RAPIST who was snared within minutes of an attack after his brave victim bit through his tongue has been jailed.

Metin Sanci, 34, fled in agony with blood dripping from the deep wound in his mouth, which left behind crucial DNA on his victim’s face.

Police were on the scene in the King’s Cross area less than a minute after the attack and officers found Sanci with facial injuries just 100 yards away.

The gash in his tongue was so deep he had to be taken to hospital for stitches.

The 21-year-old barmaid had almost made it through the front door of her home in Hanley Road, Finsbury Park, when Sanci grabbed her in the early hours of July 24 last year. The jury at Blackfriars Crown Court was shown CCTV footage of the incident, which was captured from the other side of the street.

Sanci grabbed the victim from behind and dragged her in to the doorway of a shop as she arrived home. He then tried to throttle her and gagged her mouth with his hand.

CCTV captured the eight minute attack, the force of which caused vessels in the victim’s eye to burst.

Several witnesses rang police to raise the alarm, including a couple heading to the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras International Station,

Members of the public had already called police after hearing the woman screaming.

Police officers stopped Sanci because he was covered in blood and found it was coming from inside his mouth.

Before he could be interviewed his tongue was stitched at nearby University College Hospital, in Euston, but he later refused to answer police questions.

Sanci subsequently admitted it was him in the footage, but he claimed it was with her consent.

After the unanimous verdict, reached after just an hour and 45 minutes, Judge Blacksell said divorced Sanci had a caution for assaulting his then wife.

Sentencing him to an indeterminate sentence for public protection with a minimum of four-and-a-half years, less 178 days he has spent on remand, the judge branded Sanci “evil and lustful”.

He said: “Even to hardened lawyers I would venture to say the facts of this case were dreadful and moving.

“A court can rarely have seen such compelling evidence, but evidence given in a way which was moving and which wasn’t intended to excite the situation, if anything underplay it.

“I have absolutely no doubt at all that you do pose a significant risk to members of the public of serious harm by the commission of further serious offences.

“You showed absolutely no remorse nor understanding of the woman who you abused on this night.

“You made her relive this, you raped her twice. It was bad enough to make her go through it on the first occasion but you made her go through it all over again.

“The violence used was dreadful. It could have been life threatening.”

Sanci, of Ferndale House, Manor Road, Stoke Newington, will have to sign as a sex offender for life.