A DRUG dealer who raped a woman at knifepoint and left her thinking she would be killed has been jailed for at least 15 years.

Steven Anderson, 34, from Jaywick, broke the woman’s jaw and raped her at knifepoint twice in the terrifying ordeal.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard how he had enticed her to a world of Class A drugs, giving her crack cocaine to exploit her.

When travelling he would leave his drugs with the victim.

The court heard Anderson would accuse her of taking his drugs so that she would be indebted to him.

He returned from London on December 13, 2019, and accused her of taking drugs and money, following which he threw a perfume bottle at a television, causing it to break.

He also held a meat clever to her throat and damaged a staircase with it before he locked her inside a house for a day.

On January 2, 2020, he again accused her of taking his drugs and hit her wooden meat tenderiser.

She later tried to escape but was dragged back to the house by her hair and was assaulted, suffering a broken jaw, before being raped at knifepoint twice.

She escaped to her mother’s home the following day and the police were called.

Anderson was arrested in Homerton three weeks later.

Jamie Sawyer, prosecuting, said there had been a “campaign of violence” against the victim.

In a victim impact statement, the woman said: “I honestly believed I would be killed. I still suffer from continual flashbacks.

“He abused me in the worst way possible. The scars I have will never leave me.”

Emma Akuwudike, mitigating, pleaded for a degree of mercy on behalf of Anderson, who had previously been convicted 16 times for 29 offences.

“He does express some remorse,” she said.

“He seems to acknowledge he has to change and can’t continue with these chaotic and violent offences and wishes to turn his life around.”

Anderson, who had been found guilty of seven charges following a trial in December, was jailed for 15 years when he appeared at court on Tuesday.

He was jailed for 15 years for rape, four years for causing GBH with intent, four years for making threats to kill, four years for false imprisonment, five months for assault by beating, and three months for criminal damage – to serve concurrently – and to serve a further six years on licence