A SEX attacker who violently abused three young women - one of them from the age of 15 - has been convicted of five rapes.

 

A jury at the High Court in Livingston found Zach Rankin, of Mount Florida, Glasgow, was found guilty of carrying out deviant sex attacks on young women he had seduced.

One 24-year-old victim said he slapped her and spat on her face before raping her on two occasions in flats in Pollockshields, Glasgow.

All the offences were committed between January 2010 and May 2014.

Rankin, who turned 23 during the trial, had denied all the charges and claimed the females consented to sex.

In addition to the five rape charges, the jury also convicted him of six vicious assaults on two of the girls and a further charge of racially abusing one victim.

Judge Lord Bannatyne called for background reports and deferred sentence on Rankin to June 11 at the High Court in Edinburgh.

He also ordered Rankin's name to be added to the Sex Offenders Register with immediate effect.

He thanked the jury for their "discerning judgment", and told them: "I realise that this case has been a particularly difficult one. You've had to listen to evidence much of which I suppose surprised and shocked you. "It wasn't a pleasant case to listen to by any stretch of the imagination."