A grandfather has been found guilty of raping a young mum-of-two after offering her a lift home from a party.

John Thorne, 55, of Putney Heath, was refused bail by an Old Bailey judge before he is sentenced for the attack on the 27-year-old in summer 2006.

The victim believes she was drugged when Thorne consoled her over a fight with her boyfriend as they drove home.

She woke up to find Thorne leaning over her naked body in bed and saying: "Smile for the camera."

Thorne, who suffered five heart attacks in 2001, was not in court due to illness, when a jury found him guilty of rape, sexual assault by penetration and two counts of affray.

He returned to the dock to ask the judge to allow him to remain on conditional bail so he could attend a hospital appointment next month.

Judge Richard Hayward refused and remanded him in custody until sentencing takes place on March 14.

He added: "I am going to revoke bail. These are extremely serious offences. The Prison Service should be able to deal with your health problems."

The Old Bailey heard Thorne has previous convictions dating back to 1970 when he was 17. They include intercourse with a girl under 16, arson, causing actual bodily harm, burglary and driving matters.

In 1981 he was jailed for three months for possession of a firearm without a certificate and last appeared in court on March 14, 2006, for theft.

Jurors heard Thorne had threatened to shoot the victim in the head unless she kept quiet and even confronted her brandishing a baseball bat.

But she finally reported the rape to police after trying to kill herself and confiding in a nurse at hospital. She has been traumatised since the attack and has been staying with her parents.

During the trial the victim claimed she blacked out during the journey to her home in south-west London, and woke up to find herself in Thorne's bedroom in Putney.

Prosecutor Linda Strudwick told the court: "She was unable to move. She couldn't feel her body.

"She was naked, he was naked and he was on top of her between her legs.

"She then blacked out and when she next came to he was on his knees scrabbling over her body. He passed a camera up and down her body and he said: ''Smile for the camera.'"

The victim said Thorne raped her before she managed to regain consciousness enough to fight him off. He then drove her home and threatened to get the gun he used to shoot rabbits and "put one in her head" if she told anybody.

But she let slip to her sister that Thorne had come on to her after the party and rumours began to spread.

A week later Thorne confronted her with a baseball bat and screamed: "What have you f***ing said? I have told you not to tell anybody about that. I will f***ing kill you. I will f***ing crack your head now."

Thorne also tried to confront her again at her home in October 2006 and ended up slashing another man in the arm with a knife during a scuffle.

The victim only told police about the rape on December 30, 2006, and Thorne at first denied any sexual encounter.

But she had kept her knickers in a plastic bag in her chest of drawers which later revealed traces of saliva matching Thorne's DNA. Thorne then claimed they had given each other oral sex in his car on an earlier occasion after she asked to borrow £80.

He also called his wife Edna to give evidence in his defence that they had not had sex for three years because of his problems with erectile dysfunction.

Thorne, of Pullman Gardens, Putney Heath, denied assault by penetration and rape between July 1 and August 18, 2006, and two counts of affray in August and October 2006. A fifth charge of sexual assault by touching was a lesser alternative to the rape charge.