A student who carried out a sex attack on a teenage girl was jailed for three and a half years at the High Court in Glasgow.

Gerard Costa, 24, had been on a night out a a casino on Glasgow's Broomielaw on September 12 2009 when he attacked his 19-year-old victim in a lane near the city's Arches nightclub.

Costa, the son of a chief naval engineer who was studying nautical science at Glasgow Nautical College, denied the attack claiming he had been too drunk to try and have sex, but a jury found him guilty of assaulting the teenager with intent to rape.

The court heard that Costa's victim had been on a night out with friends, but was on her own after going to check a bus timetable at around 5.30am. He spoke to her, and lifted her up and after putting her down, made her walk with him to Midland Street. 

He indecently assaulted her there before she managed to escape.  Costa was later arrested after a media appeal.

Costa denied when questioned by police that he had been with a girl claiming to be at home when the incident happened, but later claimed that when he met the girl they kissed and it was her suggestion to go to the lane, but he said he could not do anything else as he was incapable through drink.

His friend John Ferguson told the jury how Costa had claimed during their night out that he was "going for a hooker". Mr Ferguson said he found the comment "sinister", but Costa insisted he did not "get his joke".

Costa's lawyer said that his client's career career in the Merchant Navy would now be over.

Judge John Beckett QC told him: "The complainer was a complete stranger to you and you took advantage of the slight build of this young woman.

"You carried her and forced her to walk with you into a lane before pinning her down and carrying out a sustained assault.

"It was only her quick thinking that allowed her to escape.

"This is a very serious matter and there is no suitable alternative to a custodial sentence."

Judge Beckett also placed Costa on the sex offenders register indefinitely and recommended that Indian-born costa be deported on his release from prison.