Dan Tesfalul, an Eritrean who has been in the UK since 2022, attacked his victim on Rose Lane before running off when challenged by a security guard.

He was initially charged with raping the woman three times on the same occasion.

However, after he pleaded guilty to one charge, prosecutors agreed to let the other two counts lie on file.

Appearing at Norwich Crown Court yesterday, he was jailed for eight years and three months.

Norwich Crown Court (Image: Peter Walsh, Newsquest) His sentencing came on the day Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, announced plans she said would make it harder for asylum seekers convicted of sex offences to stay in the UK.

The court was told that Tesfalul had left Eritrea seven years ago and arrived by boat in the UK in 2022.

The war-torn country, in the Horn of Africa, is home to just 3.6 million people but Eritreans have made up the fourth-largest group of asylum seekers in the UK in recent years.

As an asylum seeker, Tesfalul - who had been studying for a psychology degree in his home country - was granted leave to remain in November 2023.

At the time of the attack, in May 2024, he had been staying at the Brook Hotel in Bowthorpe, one of two hotels in Norwich used by the Home Office as a temporary home for those seeking asylum.

Brook Hotel in Bowthorpe........

© Norwich Evening News