A SEX beast freed early from prison was jailed for seven years for raping a woman who helped him when he was assaulted.

Alan Mullen subjected his latest victim to a brutal sex attack while he was out on licence from prison for a previous rape conviction.

The victim later hit Mullen with a hammer after she escaped from his Irvine flat in April.

Judge Lord Macphail told Mullen, 45: "She says she would now think twice about offering help again because she is too scared to put herself in a vulnerable position ever again.

"This is your second conviction for the crime of rape. Your first was on August 13 in 2003 when you were sentenced to four years.

"On this occasion your victim came to your assistance after you had been assaulted.

"After rendering you assistance, you prevented her from leaving the flat, forced her to the floor and struggled with her while she was shouting and screaming.

"You tried to smother her screams by putting your forearm across her mouth and committed this crime."

The judge said Mullen would also be kept under supervision for three years following the completion of his latest prison sentence.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard unemployed Mullen raped the 36-year-old woman after she had helped clean him up after he was attacked.

After helping him, she told him she had to go back home but Mullen's attitude changed and he appeared to take offence at the prospect of her leaving.

He grabbed hold of her.

She shouted at him to "get off" and began screaming, but he pinned her down. After the rape she managed to get out of the flat but returned armed with a hammer and hit him, before running home and collapsing.

An agent for Mullen said his client's list of criminal convictions was "alcohol-fuelled from a very early age".

Mullen, who also has previous convictions for assault, was in an approved school by the age of 13.

The agent continued: "He went straight from there to borstal and straight from borstal to adult prison."