AN "amoral" drug dealer who raped his clients after plying them with ecstasy has been jailed for more than 30 years.

Omar Sharif, 24, supplied M-Cat and ecstasy to vulnerable young women, rendered his victims insensible and then attacked them.

When he was on trial last year, proceedings had to be halted after he tried to gain sympathy from the Newcastle Crown Court jury by falsely claiming to have cradled his murdered uncle as he lay dying.

Sharif was convicted of rape following a retrial last month and admitted a range of drugs offences, perjury and perverting the course of justice.

Sharif, 24, of Brunton Terrace, Sunderland, also tried to get others to cover for him by lying to police.

He was jailed for 32 and a half years, with a five-year extended licence, and was told he will serve at least 19 behind bars, but he could serve the full term if he is not safe to be released.

Judge Penny Moreland told him his actions had a serious impact on the lives of the four vulnerable women he raped or sexually assaulted.

She told him: "You are a sexual predator. You deployed a range of tactics to obtain their submission and compliance, including the use of drugs, including intimidation and your determined attempts to silence any complaint made thereafter.

"I regard your dangerousness as compounded by your utter disregard for the truth.

"You appear to have behaved in a way which was entirely amoral.

"I see no prospect of these traits altering in the foreseeable future."

Robert Woodcock QC, defending, said Sharif was not "a black cab rapist" nor a part of a gang "trawling the streets looking for vulnerable girls to groom" but that his sexual offending arose from his "small commercial enterprise of drugs supply".

During the trial, Sharif told the jury about his Mercedes with a personalised registration plate, saying he paid £12,000 for the car hoping it looked like a £40,000 vehicle "so everyone would take notice of me, I was flaunting my wealth".

After the case, Acting Superintendent Claire Wheatley said: "He is a manipulative man who knew what he was doing.

"He preyed on young, vulnerable women he thought would never report him.

"He thought he was untouchable and he thought he could lie his way out of everything. "He failed and today he will now begin a 37-year sentence behind bars, where he belongs."