A judge ruled Melody Goymer acted unlawfully by removing Thomas Cope's possessions from the property before he had been convicted of his latest offence.

The 60-year-old grandmother gained access to the two-bedroom flat in Hailsham, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, after repeatedly failing to contact Cope and discovered a letter from his solicitor, whom she contacted.

She said she was not told the nature of the offence Cope was at that stage alleged to have committed but was left in no doubt of the seriousness of it.

Mrs Goymer, who lives in Pevensey Bay, near Eastbourne, decided to clear Cope's possessions from the flat and placed them into storage two weeks' later.

Cope, a 55-year-old former debt collector, was jailed for life at Hove Crown Court last year after being convicted of raping a 19-year-old woman in 2006.

Cope – who had been living alone in the flat – was first jailed for rape for four years in 1976, and he has further convictions for rape, attempted rape and indecent assault.

To Mrs Goymer's disbelief, she was told last year that she was being sued by Cope in a publicly-funded case while he was serving his latest prison sentence.

A judge, sitting at Eastbourne County Court last week, ruled that Mrs Goymer had unlawfully terminated Cope's tenancy by failing to seek a court order for possession of the flat.

Last night she said she faced financial ruin after the judge awarded Cope £750 in damages and ordered her to return his goods, including CDs and books, to his wife within 14 days.

But she said she also faces paying her legal costs of £5,000 as well as Cope's, estimated to be up to £13,000.

Owing to the state in which Cope left the flat, Mrs Goymer said she will also have to spend thousands of pounds renovating and redecorating.

Mrs Goymer, who rents two properties in the Eastbourne area, said: "I'm absolutely furious. We are astonished, upset and feeling a sense of plain disbelief. We just can't manage to find that sort of money."