A South Hams sex attacker who brutally tried to rape a terrified woman after watching a vile scene from a horror film on his phone has been jailed.

Kevin Foale, of Lister Way, East Allington, near Kingsbridge, left his victim half-naked and covered in blood after knocking out her two front teeth during the savage attack.

The 49-year-old was seen on CCTV lurking in doorways for three hours as he waited for a lone woman to walk down The Terrace in Torquay.

The married father-of-three admitted attempted rape and was locked up for nine years and three months, with a five-year extended licence, by Judge Peter Johnson at Exeter Crown Court.

The footage showed him watching a gang rape from the slasher film Gutterballs as he hid waiting for a victim.

He had copied it onto his phone just four days before he carried out the attack in the early hours of Sunday, January 20, this year.

He imitated the action from the film by removing his upper clothing during the attack.

He took his blood-stained shirt away with him and police found it near where he had parked his car.

Police put in hours of painstaking work to trace him by piecing together hours of CCTV and unravelling his movements on the night and spotting him driving away.

They discovered that he had made four previous late-night trips from his home near Kingsbridge to the same area of Torquay over the previous three months, either hunting for victims or scouting out the attack scene.

Judge Johnson told him: "This was a brutal and sustained attack. It was carefully planned.

“You had visited the area five times since November 2018, no doubt by way of reconnaissance or earlier unsuccessful attempts to find a vulnerable female victim.

"A few days before, you had recorded a rape scene from a film which showed a semi-conscious woman being raped.

“Just before the scene, she was punched in the face. Tellingly, that clip was on your phone before you struck.

"Having arrived in Torquay, you took pains to avoid driving along the Terrace, no doubt to avoid your car being on CCTV.

“You parked just after 11pm and prowled around for three hours looking for a victim. You made circuit after circuit of the area.

"You took steps to hide your appearance, wearing a hoodie and beanie hat.

“Chillingly, around midnight, you took out your mobile phone and were seen looking at it.

"I have no doubt that you were looking at the rape scene and my concern is that you were planning to act out parts of that scene.

"The evidence shows a sustained attack on a vulnerable victim and that there was considerable planning over a period of months."

The judge also commended the police team which brought Foale to justice, saying their painstaking work had allayed the suffering of the victim and fears of other women by securing an early arrest.

Mr Peter Coombe, prosecuting, said the victim was found by four pub workers who were on their way home at around 2.10am.

She was half-naked, covered in blood and whispering “help me”.

She told them a man had tried to rape her and she had kicked him off. They helped her back into her jeans and called the police.

Foale had fled the scene but CCTV showed him returning to his Peugeot in a nearby car park and police traced him from his number plate.

They found his bloodstained shirt hidden under a rock near the car park.

He claimed he had gone to Torquay to fish in Beacon Cove and had come across the injured woman on his way home, but he could not explain how her jeans had been pulled off her with such force that the button broke.

Mr Coombe said the attack had been pre-planned and may have been mimicking the actions on the rape film which he had recorded onto his phone.

He said: "The CCTV showed him repeatedly circling the area for three hours. It is quite plain he was waiting until a victim came along.

"There was clear planning, not just on the night but in the weeks leading up to it, when he was not fishing; he was staking out the area."

The attack had a traumatic effect on the victim, who is still suffering flashbacks and nightmares and scared to go out on her own.

Bodycam footage from the police who went to her aid on the night showed her sat on the floor in torn clothing, crying hysterically with blood streaming from her mouth.

The victim’s impact statement said: "I am no longer the same person. Every day I wake up and look in the mirror and see I am missing my front teeth.

"I have lost a lot of confidence and it has affected my mental health."

Mr Simon Burns, defending, said there was no rational explanation for Foale’s behaviour other than that he had been suffering from depression since the death of his son Daniel in a car crash in 2015.

He said: "He wants to express his apologies to the complainant. He says he is deeply sorry for what happened and the distress he has caused.

"This behaviour was completely out of character.

“He has led an exemplary, hard-working life and there is no rational explanation for what happened.

“There was deep-seated unhappiness that had set itself in stone inside him.

"This was a moment of complete madness, of him behaving in a completely reckless way for which there had been no signs or signals at all."