A HEADTEACHER who was extradited from Spain to face justice for carrying out sex attacks in Renfrewshire has been handed a prison sentence of eight-and-a-half years.

James Berry, 77, preyed on two women as he committed a string of assaults spanning three decades.

The crimes took place in Renfrew and Houston, as well as houses in Govan and Crookston, mainly between 1963 and 1987.

Sentencing Berry at the High Court in Edinburgh today, judge Thomas Welsh QC told him: "In my opinion, the offences, the crimes, committed were extremely serious and can properly be described as heinous, albeit they are of a historical nature."

Berry was also told he would have faced a 10-year prison sentence if the judge hadn't taken into account his age and the passage of time since the offences were committed.

He had earlier denied a series of charges but was found guilty of five offences of assault, indecent assault and rape after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Berry punched and throttled his first victim at addresses in Glasgow, Renfrew and Houston and subjected her to rapes, with the attacks starting in 1963.

His second victim was still a child when he started to sexually abuse her in 1969.

He went on to rape her at addresses in Renfrew, Houston and Glasgow.

Berry, headteacher at King Richard III College, a private school in Mallorca, Spain, where he lived for the past 30 years, had claimed he was the target of a "criminal conspiracy."

He was brought back to Scotland in 2019 under a European arrest warrant.

Defence counsel Claire Mitchell QC said that allegations were first made against him in 2016 in Spain and then in Scotland.

She added: "The present and unusual circumstances are such that, effectively, parallel investigations were going on in Spain and Scotland."

Ms Mitchell argued that the time that has elapsed in bringing Berry to trial was "excessive."

She said that, at the end of any appeal process in Scotland, he would be returned to Spain to serve his remaining sentence there through an undertaking by the Scottish authorities.

Ms Mitchell added that Berry had built up the school in Spain from modest beginnings and was dedicated to it.

The defence counsel said he was assessed as posing a low risk of reoffending.

She told the court: "He has no previous convictions and no outstanding cases."