A MAN found guilty of rape yesterday is a serial sex offender already serving a life sentence.

A jury at Basildon Crown Court found Richard Rose, 49, guilty of raping a young woman between 1973 and 1975, while he was living in Grays.

Rose was also convicted of three counts of indecent assault on the woman, but was acquitted of two further counts of indecent assault.

During the trial he admitted having sex with the woman, but claimed it was consensual.

Yesterday, Rose was sentenced to three years.

It will run alongside the life sentence he is already serving for the rape of a 14-year-old girl in 2004.

He must serve a minimum of nine years.

He was also convicted of another rape on a young woman in 1987 and, before that, admitted gross indecency with two schoolgirls in 1978.