A former film studies student has been warned he faces a potential life sentence after being convicted of a string of sexual offences against three sleeping women.

Connor Yaxley, 30, formerly a student at the University of Suffolk, based at East Coast College in Yarmouth, has been on trial at Norwich Crown Court accused of sex attacks against the three women.

The women cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Norwich Crown CourtNorwich Crown Court (Image: Peter Walsh, Newsquest) The jury of seven men and five women took more than six hours to find Yaxley guilty of three counts of rape against one of the women, two counts of rape against a second woman and a sexual assault against a third woman.

The offences took place between December 2017 and August 2020.

Following verdicts in the case this afternoon (August 29), Judge Andrew Shaw said he had been convicted of "extremely serious" sexual offences but was not in a position to sentence him today as he needed to find out more about him and ordered a pre-sentence report.

Adjourning sentence until November 1, Judge Shaw said Yaxley was an offender about whom he had "the gravest of concerns" and would be considering not just a "very lengthy custodial sentence" but "potentially a life sentence".

The court had heard a person consents to sex by "choice" and if they have the “freedom and capacity to make that choice”.

But Andrew Thompson, prosecuting, said a sleeping woman - “the same as if it were an unconscious woman” - cannot consent to sexual conduct that takes place “while she is asleep”.

He said the first alleged victim had been asleep and "unable to consent" on the occasions Yaxley is accused of raping her, between December 2017 and December 2019.

The jury of seven men and five women were told the second alleged victim recounted two occasions when she "awoke from a deep sleep" to find Yaxley having sex with her.

Yaxley, of Sandown Road, Yarmouth, was remanded in custody.