A violent sex attacker who raped and beat two women and attacked a third after locking them in their homes has lost his bid for freedom.
Michael Crombie was jailed for 14 years in September last year after he was found guilty of a catalogue of horrific offences.
A jury heard that the 47-year-old, formerly of Inverness but now said to have an address in Taunton, Somerset, held his victims against their will.
One of the terrified women managed to escape his clutches by sneaking out of a window with her children.
Crombie also repeatedly assaulted a young girl.
A jury found him guilty of rape, assault and abduction between 1989 and 1996.
But Crombie’s legal team lodged an appeal against the sentence, arguing that he had suffered a miscarriage of justice because evidence given by one witness was prejudicial to his case. They claimed that it should have been deserted.
Crombie’s lawyers also claimed the sentence was “excessive”.
But in a judgement published yesterday at the Court of Criminal Appeal, Lady Paton said there had been no miscarriage of justice.
She added: “In our opinion, the appellant has been convicted of a horrifying catalogue of abuse of women over a protracted period.
“His victims underwent enormous suffering and have been left scarred, both physically and psychologically, by what they went through.
“In all the circumstances, we consider that a cumulo sentence of 14 years fell well within the range of reasonable disposals open to the trial judge. We are not persuaded that the sentence imposed was excessive.”
The jury was told that Crombie’s first victim had been assaulted repeatedly in Inverness.
His second victim then became the target of his violent temper, including an assault with a poker.
Crombie went on to repeatedly rape the petrified woman before also assaulting her daughter.
Later, Crombie targeted a third woman, whom he raped and repeatedly locked in her Inverness home, once imprisoning her for two weeks.
The woman managed to flee her tormentor on another occasion by escaping from a window.
Crombie denied all the allegations but was convicted after trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
The judge, Lord Armstrong, told him: “You deliberately created an atmosphere of fear in the homes of these women. They were terrified of you and how you might abuse them.
“You presented yourself initially as a charming man, but you quickly became controlling, manipulative and violent.”