A CHEF who raped a 16-year-old girl in the grounds of the Windermere hotel where he worked has been sent to prison for seven years.

Francis Cantwell, 25, attacked the girl as she helped him up a steep path after he broke his ankle during horseplay in the lake.

He had been drinking heavily, celebrating his last day at the Langdale Chase Hotel, before moving to a job elsewhere as an assistant restaurant manager.

Cantwell, whose home is in Hurst Green, Mawdsley, Ormskirk, in Lancashire, pleaded not guilty to rape, saying the girl consented to sex.

But a jury at Carlisle Crown Court found him guilty on an 11-1 majority verdict.

Cantwell was ordered to register indefinitely with the police as a sex offender.