A 38-YEAR-old Oldbury man has been jailed for 13-and-a-half years for a string of charges including rape and assault.

Judge Barry Berlin told Marewan Faraj only a substantial jail term was appropriate for his crimes, adding: “You have behaved in a brutal way.”

Faraj, of Ashes Road, had denied two rape charges, two assaults and a charge of cruelty committed over a 15 month period.

But he was convicted by two juries after they retired to consider the evidence at the end of his two trials at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Philip Beardwell, prosecuting, said the crimes committed by Faraj began in February 2015 with a number of the offences coming after he had been granted bail.

He told the court that Faraj raped the same woman on two separate occasions while he also struck a child with a metal rod and stick after losing his temper.

Then, at the end of March last year, he invited his partner in a car wash business to his home before carrying out a savage, unprovoked attack on the man.

Faraj used the wooden handle of a sledge hammer as a weapon, added Mr Beardwell, and his victim was knocked unconscious.

The man sustained a badly broken nose, a nasty cut to his forehead, together with serious psychological damage, the court was told.