Sex beast jailed for attacks on 12 girls
A SEX attacker guilty of crimes against 12 young women and underage girls in Ayr, Irvine and Lanarkshire has been jailed for 11 years.
Ross McCrum preyed on his victims which included raping two of them.
The 27 year-old also sent lewd photos of himself and tried to arrange to meet some of the girls for sex - one as young as 14.
McCrum further forced one of the teenagers to send him intimate photos.
Last week he was sentenced for a total of 20 charges at the High Court in Glasgow, having stood trial in August.
The crimes occurred between June 2014 and January 2020 in Irvine, a hotel in Ayr and Uddingston.
It emerged he already had a previous conviction for sexual offences.
Judge Tom Hughes told him: “It is quite clear you caused considerable distress to the victims.
“They gave their evidence with great dignity and now have the consolation of knowing the information they brought to the authorities was accepted.
“Hopefully they will gain some comfort for that.”
McCrum will be supervised for a further three years on his release.
He was also put on the sex offenders list indefinitely.
McCrum raped one 14 year-old girl in Uddingston in 2014.
The charge included an allegation that he ordered her into a store cupboard.
The other rape victim was attacked in the same property in the town in 2019.
He sexually assaulted a 15 year-old girl at the hotel in Ayr in the same year.
One of the youngsters McCrum sent naked photos to was just 13.
Prosecutors stated he also pestered and threatened a reluctant 15 year-old to send pictures of herself.
Edward Targowski KC, defending, said McCrum was described as showing “social and sexual immaturity, no doubt related to his low IQ and learning difficulties”.