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A prolific sex offender who began his attacks when he was a young boy has been jailed for seven years.

Steven Fergusson committed crimes of rape, indecency and assault in Erskine, Renfrewshire between 1995 to 2019. He would have been about 13 years old at the time his attacks began.

Fergusson, 39, had denied a series of charges but was convicted of a total of 18 offences against nine women.

He was also put under supervision for four years after his release.

Judge Thomas Welsh told the High Court in Edinburgh it was necessary to protect the public from serious harm.

Fergusson, formerly of Renfrew, first preyed on a girl aged seven or eight in wooded area in Erskine from 1995 to 1997.

Fergusson went on to target another girl in the area in 1999 and 2000. He raped the girl at a house.

The court heard Fergusson restrained and raped another 13-year-old girl in January 2000 in a car in a garage in Erskine. He raped her a second time at a grassy area in the town.

Another victim was assaulted by him in 2000 at locations in Paisley and Erskine.

Two other teenage girls were molested by Fergusson in Erskine in 2000 and 2001.

A decade later, between 2012 and 2014, he assaulted and rape another women in the town and destroyed some of her possessions.

The trial heard Fergusson raped another woman at a property in Erskine in February 2019.

Fergusson, who watched the sentencing proceedings via a TV link to prison, was told he would be placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.