Paedophile Robert Young tried to kill victim
A paedophile who tried to kill one of his victims years after stopping his abuse has been jailed for 21 years.
Robert Young, 38, from Coatbridge, was found guilty of abusing three young girls for up to 10-year periods at a house in the North Lanarkshire town.
At the High Court in Edinburgh he was also convicted of the attempted murder of one of his victims.
Judge Lord Malcolm jailed Young for 15 years for the sexual abuse and a further six years for the murder bid.
The court heard how the abuse began when Young was still a teenager and his first victim was aged four.
During an ordeal that spanned a decade, the girl was shown pornographic material, induced to perform sex acts with another female child and molested by Young.
A second girl was abused for a six-year period from the age of 10. At one stage Young asked her to take the contraceptive pill.
The third victim was subjected to a 10-year ordeal at the hands of Young from the age of six, beginning in 1995.
In 2009, four years after the abuse stopped, Young launched his murder bid on the victim.
During the attack she was detained against her will in the house, repeatedly hit on the head with a mallet, seized by the head and body and had her throat compressed.
Lord Malcolm told Young that a background report prepared on him had assessed him as posing a high risk of future offending.
Jailing Young, the judge said: "No words of mine can adequately describe the gravity of your conduct towards three young people.
"On a regular basis you abused them in the most disgraceful of ways, starting when they were very young, and all for your gratification.
"As if all of this was not bad enough you have also been convicted of the attempted murder of the third victim by hitting her on the head with a mallet and rendering her unconscious by a head lock."
Lord Malcolm said "that only a lengthy custodial sentence would be appropriate".
He also placed Young on the sex offenders register.