THREE kisses in a text message led Hamid Erfani to rape a vulnerable woman in her own home, a court heard.

Erfani, a 34-year-old Iranian immigrant of Reading Street, Swindon, who arrived in this country in 2006, was sentenced to six years in prison yesterday.

He now faces automatic deportation, subject to a final decision by the Home Office.

Following a four-day trial at Swindon Crown Court last month, Judge Euan Ambrose passed sentence at Bristol Crown Court yesterday as Erfani stood with an interpreter.

The judge revealed Erfani had said three kisses at the end of text messages between him and his victim were a sign to him she wanted to have sex.

The court heard Erfani had ignored his victim’s protests as he carried out the attack on a sofa in her living room in the early hours of November 4, 2012.

Judge Ambrose said: “I have considered the vulnerability of the victim, the knowledge you had of her vulnerability and the effect of the offence on her.

“In all the circumstances, this is a case so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified.”

The court heard Erfani had been an invited guest at the victim’s home. But when he tried to pull her top down he was told to stop. He tried again and told her they were going to have sex.

“You ignored her protests. She had been saying no from the start,” the jude said.

“When it was over she confronted you over your behaviour and you told her that you thought she wanted sex because of texts that ended with three kisses.”

The court heard Erfani had been tortured during a two-month spell in an Iranian prison, and had been left with physical and psychological scarring.

He had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and had attempted to commit suicide by slitting his wrists in 2011.

If he is deported he will leave behind a four-year-old son, who lives in Swindon with his mother.

Erfani received a conditional discharge in 2010 for a separate offence, in which he was found to own equipment which manufactured fraudulent identity cards.