A sex attacker who raped one woman and assaulted two others was jailed for nine years today.
James Inglis, 34, carried out the attacks over a nine month period at Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis and at Beauly in Inverness-shire.
A judge told Inglis at the High Court in Edinburgh: “The evidence disclosed you have an abusive and controlling attitude towards women.”
Lord Pentland said the rapist had been willing to use violence against victims in order to gratify his desires.
He told Inglis: “You are assessed as presenting a high risk of committing further sexual and other offences in the future.”
The judge ordered that he be under supervision for a further three-year period.
He said: “An extended sentence is, in my view, clearly necessary for the protection of the public from serious harm.”
He told Inglis that he would be on the sex offenders’ register for life.
Inglis, originally from Stornoway, but latterly of Whitworth, Lancashire, had denied committing the offences, but was convicted at an earlier trial.
He raped his first victim, a 22-year-old woman, at an address in Beauly in March 2012.
A second victim was targeted at a house in Stornoway after he entered uninvited, grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against a door.
He held a knife to her and attempted to remove her clothing and sexually assaulted the victim.
The 36-year-old told the court: “He was trying to get my trousers down. He then grabbed me by the neck.”
“He was just squeezing my neck. I couldn’t breathe. I was getting dizzy.
He kicked me in the back,” she said.
Inglis carried out a further sex attack on a 27-year-old woman at another address in Stornoway in December 2012.
Defence counsel Brian McConnachie QC said: “His position in relation to the offences of which he was convicted remains the same.”
Mr McConnachie said the case involved “three isolated incidents”.
The defence counsel said that Inglis, a former operations manager for a catering firm, had gone through a “traumatic childhood” and was later adopted and had experienced racism and social isolation.
“He also appeared to have had his troubles with both alcohol and drugs during his life,” he said.
Mr McConnachie said that Inglis accepted he was going to have to serve “a substantial period of imprisonment”