A Dalbeattie rapist who preyed on under age girls in a campaign of abuse has been jailed for nine years.
Barry Mulholland, 47, subjected five young women to rape ordeals over two decades, with four of his victims aged under 16, including a child of 11.
A judge told Mulholland: “It is clear that your actions have had a profound and long-standing impact on some of these young women.”
Lord Richardson said at the High Court in Edinburgh: “You have been found guilty of six charges of the rapes of five young women.
“These convictions are as a result of what I can only describe as a result of a campaign of abuse carried out against these young women.”
Lord Richardson said that the rapist continued to deny responsibility for the crimes and has shown no remorse.
He told the sex offender who followed the sentencing via a video link to Glasgow’s Barlinnie prison: “A lengthy period in custody is the only appropriate sentence I can pass on you to reflect your appalling conduct.”
The court heard that Mulholland of Urr Road, Dalbeattie, was assessed as posing a high risk of offending.
Lord Richardson ordered that he should also be under supervision for a further three-year period and told Mulholland that if he breached licence conditions during that time he could be returned to prison.
Mulholland denied the offences but was found guilty of the sex crimes following an earlier trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Defence counsel Gary Allan QC told the court: “He has maintained his innocence.”
He said Mulholland had previously served a prison sentence and that since his release his behaviour
had given rise to no further police reports.
Mulholland raped his first victim between August, 1994, and August, 1997, when she was aged 14 or 15 at a house in West Lothian. He then raped another girl while she was aged 14 and under the influence of drink in Moffat on an occasion between November, 1997, and November the following year.
Another girl was subjected to a rape when she was aged 15.
His youngest victim was attacked in a car at a location in the region between December, 2015, and December the following year.
Mulholland carried out a sex act on himself and sexually assaulted the 11-year-old in the vehicle.
His only adult victim was a woman who was raped in Dumfries in 2017.
He was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
