A sex offender has been banned from contacting three women indefinitely as he was jailed for offences against one of them.

Benjamin Dilnot, now 23, has previously served a prison sentence for offences against a fourth woman, York Crown Court heard.

Andrew Petterson, prosecuting, described how Dilnot sexually assaulted the first woman during a prolonged violent incident.

Released on bail with conditions including not to contact her in any way, he tried repeatedly over the phone to persuade her to withdraw her statement, claimed he would kill himself, that she had ruined his life and that he would never get a job.

Later, after she had been out in public, he contacted her to tell her where she had been. He followed her as she was driving home and then overtook her and braked suddenly forcing her to stop her car.

She told the court she had had nightmares for years and would bear the scars of his actions for the rest of her life. She has been seeing a counsellor.

Before being sentenced for offences against her, Dilnot stood trial at York Crown Court for alleged offences against the second and third women and was acquitted at both trials on all counts.

He has spent the last 505 days in prison, including 38 days when he was recalled to prison after being released partway through a two-year sentence for offences against the fourth woman.

Jailing him for offences against the first woman for two years and five months, minus the 38 days on recall, Recorder Caroline Goodwin KC told him: “You have wasted the best years of your life.”

The offences against the first woman “demonstrate you are a violent young man, certainly at the age of 18,” she said. “You have exhibited an inability to control yourself or have any insight into how you behave.”

She said he was “physically tall and physically imposing” and the first woman must have been “absolutely terrified” by what he had done to her.

She also said he was “immature”, had been taking “excessive steroids” at the time of the offences against the first woman and had had a difficult childhood during which social services had been involved with the family and he had experienced domestic violence.

Dilnot, of Willow Bank, Brayton, pleaded guilty to offences including sexually assaulting the first woman, causing her actual bodily harm and witness intimidation, all committed when he was 18.

He was banned from contacting her, the second and third women and going near their homes in three restraining orders that will last indefinitely. There were additional conditions to some of the orders. He will be on the sex offenders' register for 10 years.

Laura Addy, defending, said there had been a period when the first woman had been protected under an earlier restraining order when he had not contacted her.