A CONVICTED robber who met a stranger for a bondage sex session after making contact through a dating website stole the man’s car after leaving him bound and blindfolded in a locked flat.

Carlisle Crown Court heard how the distressed victim - trapped in the Penrith flat for several hours - finally struggled free and broke out of the flat.

He alerted police after discovering Matthew Gregg, 34, had taken his mobile phone, keys and car.

Gregg, from White Hart Yard, Penrith, admitted two thefts and one count of false imprisonment.

Anthony Parkinson, prosecuting, said that five or six months before the offences the victim had joined a dating site and through this arranged to meet Gregg at his Penrith flat on Monday, March 25.

They drank vodka and had sex.

“The defendant asked him about sexual preferences, and whether or not he’d like to be tied up during the course of sexual activity,” said the barrister. During the evening, this happened three times.

The third time this happened, the victim was blindfolded, and realised the dressing gown cord binding his hands behind his back were tighter than before. At this stage, Gregg left the room. Fifteen minutes later, the man broke free - only to find that he was locked inside the bedroom.

The doors had been locked.

He broke out the flat following, and realised his belonging - including his car - had been stolen. It was recovered three weeks later.

Police arrested the defendant the following day.

He was found hiding in the loft of a flat where a former partner of his was living in Lanarkshire, central Scotland.

The victim later picked him out at an identification parade, though he later reported how the experience had left him tearful and embarrassed.

David Wales, for Gregg, said a psychological assessment pointed to the cause of his offending as being attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHT). The defendant already had 49 offences on his criminal record, including the robbery of a cabbie. Judge Andrew Jefferies QC jailed Gregg for three years after noting that the victim must have been terrified.