A rapist who preyed on vulnerable young women in Dundee and Perthshire has been jailed for six years.
Jake Hawkins, 26, attacked victims when some were under the influence of drink, medication or asleep.
A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: “You took advantage of them for your own sexual gratification.”
Lady Poole said it was clear from the evidence at his earlier trial what he did was unwelcome, frightening, painful or degrading.
The court heard the psychological harm suffered by victims was likely to be pervasive and enduring.
Lady Poole said: “The offences of which you have been convicted are of the utmost seriousness.
“Rape, sexual and other assaults will not be tolerated in our society.”
The judge said that she took into account his age at the time of the offending and his lack of previous convictions.
She ordered Hawkins be kept under supervision for a further three years and warned if he breached licence conditions during that period he could be returned to prison.
Sent victims text messages after attacks
Hawkins, formerly of Scroggiehill, Almondbank, near Perth, had denied a string of offences at his trial but was found guilty of six rape charges, a sexual assault and an assault.
Hawkins sent a message to one woman telling her: “There’s no excuse for what I did.”
He also claimed: “It wasn’t premeditated . It was me succumbing to lust.”
He carried out the series of crimes against three victims between 2013 and 2017 in Dundee, Pencaitland, in East Lothian, Coupar Angus and his home village of Almondbank.
Raped teenager in woodland
A teenage victim said they originally had contact online and arranged to meet for a “hook up”.
“I got off the bus. He was waiting across the road for me because he thought it would be bad to meet a schoolgirl.
“I was either a very recent leaver or in my last year at school.”
During their initial meeting they went to woodland where Hawkins slapped her, put a hand around her throat and pushed her against a tree.
“I couldn’t breathe. I could feel myself start to black out.
“I thought he was going to kill me,” she told the court.
The victim was 17 at the time and said: “I was scared. I felt stupid.
“I had been raped a year before.”
“I had never been to these woods before.
“He was the only person I could trust to get me out of there.
“He led me down some path, then he took a turning. It didn’t look familiar.
“He took me down, I realised we weren’t going back the same path.
“He told me ‘we are not leaving here until I get what I came for’,”
The victim told the court Hawkins raped her at the first meeting and later carried out similar attacks.
Dundee attack
A 28-year-old woman told the court that she repeatedly told Hawkins “no” but was attacked by him when she was crying in pain at a flat in Dundee.
Hawkins later told her in a message that he gave in to his lust and threw her feelings out the window.
He also claimed to feel disgusted with himself in another message.
However, in evidence he claimed he was trying to appease the woman.
In a message to another victim he said: “I know what I did was horrific but please don’t think I am a monster.”
Two of the victims assaulted by Hawkins had their throats compressed by him during the attacks.
He told advocate depute Richard Goddard QC: “I would argue that slight compression of the neck for sexual satisfaction is not uncommon.”
Defence counsel Matt Jackson QC said reports prepared on Hawkins suggested he was a high risk of sexual reoffending and a medium risk of violence but added there were areas where he can be helped.
He said Hawkins was aged 18 to 22 when he carried out the offences and as a young offender should be treated differently from an adult, with rehabilitation at the heart of the sentencing process.
The former coffee shop worker and university drop-out was placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.
