A violent, convicted sex offender was today warned he faced a lengthy jail sentence after carrying out a series of rapes against vulnerable women in Aberdeen and Dundee.
James Henderson raped his first victim in 2008 and continued to carry out sex attacks until 2021.
Henderson, 45, had denied a series of charges during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but was found guilty of three offences of rape and a further attempted rape.
A judge told him: “You have been convicted of a series of rapes against women who were all, to a greater or lesser extent, vulnerable.”
Lady Haldane said: “You used violence or threats of violence to perpetrate many of these offences.”
The judge said: “The crime of rape is rightly regarded as one of the serious to come before these courts and a significant custodial sentence is inevitable.”
She said his actions continued to have effects years after the crimes he carried out.
Lady Haldane told jurors after they returned their verdicts that the case had been “a very serious matter”.
Henderson, who has previously been jailed for violent offending and was earlier made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order, repeatedly attacked his first victim between March and August in 2008 at a flat in Aberdeen.
During the sexual abuse, he grabbed the woman by the hair and forced her onto a bed before raping her.
He went on to attack and attempt to rape a second woman in January 2014 at a flat in Dundee.
He grabbed her by the head and pulled her head towards his groin in a bid to carry out an oral rape on her.
‘It was easier to have sex rather than get beaten again’
He attacked a third woman in July 2015 at another address in Dundee and pulled her by the body before subjecting her to rape.
His fourth victim was subjected to repeated rapes in 2021 at another flat in Dundee.
During assaults on her, he grabbed her by the hair, struck her on the head, pulled her ears and dragged her about.
One woman told the court that the abuse she was subjected to by Henderson was “just continuous”.
She said: “I know that he raped me that night, but then I would have sex with him to keep him happy.”
The woman told the court: “It was just easier to have sex rather than go through getting beaten again. It was just for my own safety.”
Lady Haldane called for the preparation of a background report on Henderson ahead of sentencing him next month at the High Court in Paisley.
He was placed on the sex offenders register and remanded in custody.