Teenager sentenced for raping three girls in Dumfries
A teenager who raped three schoolgirls within months of each other has been given a six year custodial sentence.
The 17-year-old was found guilty of rape offences involving victims aged 11, 13 and 16.
The attacks happened at a house and a shed in Dumfries between January and August last year.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Lord Arthurson said the convictions were "a significant escalation" in the teenager's history of offending.
The 17-year-old has previous convictions for assault and possession of a knife.
The judge said: "There is no alternative to the imposition of a substantial custodial sentence."
He also ordered that the teenager be kept under supervision for a further six year period for the protection of the public. He will be placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
The youth, who was aged 16 at the time of the offences, was found guilty at an earlier hearing.
The court heard two of the attacks occurred at a house in Dumfries and the third offence took place at a shed.
The youth contacted his oldest victim through the social media and asked to meet up with her. They went for a walk but she said she could smell alcohol from him and told him there would be no sex.
The girl said: "I said no, but it was like an obsession. It was all he wanted to do."
She told the court: "I was crying my eyes out and screaming."
Defence counsel Louise Arrol said the teenager had had "an extremely difficult childhood" and had been brought up "without boundaries".