A 23-year-old woman who strangled her rapist to death with a T-shirt has been jailed after judges ruled she had used “excessive” self defence.

Kind-hearted potato seller Roxana Ruiz Santiago had offered the man a place to stay after finding him stranded in the street in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico.

But – the court heard – she woke in the night in May 2021 to find the man she had helped in her bed raping her.

Terrified single mum Roxana – who has a five-year-old son – hit him in the face, giving him a nosebleed.

Then while he was distracted – said prosecutors – she grabbed a T-shirt, which she wrapped around his neck and throttled him to death.

She was caught when a neighbour called police as she tried to dump the body in a bag on a street corner.

Judges jailed Roxana for six years and two months saying “a blow to the head” would have been enough to defend herself.

Self defence is a legitimate mitigating factor in Mexican murder trials but the court ruled that Roxana had made “excessive use of self defence.”

To add insult to iniury Roxana was also ordered to pay MXN 280,000 (GBP 12,818) compensation to her rapist’s family.

Roxana said: “If I had not defended myself, I would be the one who is dead.”

Roxana’s lawyer, Angel Carrera, claimed they will challenge the verdict. The defence has ten days to file an appeal.

He called the sentence “unjustified” and that they will fight to receive “justice for all women”.

Roxana has already served nine months behind bars while she awaited trial after the rapist’s family objected to her being released on bail.

Feminist groups have condemned her sentence.

Activist groups, such as ‘Nos queremos vivas Neza’, have criticised the fact that the case was not considered from a gender perspective.