A SERIAL rapist from Johnstone has been jailed for seven years after he carried out sex attacks on two women and a teenage girl.

Mark O'Donnell was still a teenager when he began his horrific catalogue of abuse in 2009 by pinning down a 15-year-old victim and raping her.

He continued to commit sex offences into adulthood, subjecting two other victims to assault ordeals.

Sentencing 30-year-old O'Donnell at the High Court in Edinburgh today, judge Thomas Welsh QC told him: "I detect no sense of remorse from you for the pain and suffering that you inflicted upon these women."

He added that, given the circumstances of the case, a custodial sentence was "inevitable."

The judge also ordered that O'Donnell, formerly of Ettrick Terrace, Johnstone, should be kept under supervision for a further three years after he is released from prison.

O'Donnell had denied a string of charges at an earlier trial but was convicted of four rape offences committed between March 2009 and July 2018 at houses in Johnstone, Elderslie and Busby, in East Renfrewshire.

During the last offence, he seized a woman by the hair and covered her mouth with his hand during a rape attack on her.

Defence counsel Lili Prais said that O'Donnell, who had sobbed in the dock after being convicted, continued to deny the offences.

She told the court: "He does accept that victims of crime such as this would suffer immensely."

Ms Prais added that O'Donnell had suffered his own trauma in childhood and was subjected to bullying at school.

She said: "He suffers from depression and is now prescribed medication. He tells me the medication is having a positive impact on his mental health."

Ms Prais told the court that the first offender was not deemed to be a high risk.

However, O'Donnell was told he will be on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.