A member of a once feared crime clan has been jailed for 13 years for the horrific abuse of young girls.
James Winters was locked up after appearing at the High Court in Glasgow this week.
Vile Winters preyed on six terrified victims, with one of the girls aged around just seven or eight when she was attacked, and raped four of them.
His victims were too afraid to speak out for years, scared of Winters' and his family's reputation in the Johnstone area of Renfrewshire.
Winters' relatives include a convicted killer, while he even lost an eye after being stabbed in a suspected gangland attack in the 1990s.
Despite his reputation, his victims bravely testified last month which saw the 61 year-old convicted of a total of 13 charges.
The crimes spanned between 1979 and 1997 at various locations in Johnstone and Paisley, as well as in cars.
Lady Haldane told Winters that one victim was so regularly abused she had tragically come to believe what happened to her was "normal".
The judge added: "This was consistent, manipulative and predatory behaviour.
"Each victim was, in one or another, vulnerable.
"It took enormous courage to give evidence against you.
"They had been afraid to tell anyone because you said no one would believe them or from fear of reprisals to them or their families."
Winters, now of Paisley, showed no emotion after he was sentenced.
One woman shouted "love you" towards him as he was lead handcuffed to the cells.
In his evidence last month, Winters confessed to being no stranger to crime.
His QC Iain McSporran put to him: "We may have gained the impression that you were able at the time to have a lifestyle - including flash cars - due to criminality rather than hard work. That the position?"
Winters: "Yes."
Mr McSporran also asked: "Were there times you or members of your family were feared?"
He replied: "Me and my brothers protected each other. We did not back down from anyone."
Winters said the "turning point" was around 1993 when he was "jumped".
He recalled: "I was stabbed in the eye and the blade broke in my eye."
Despite admitting being involved in other illegal activities, he denied the sexual abuse.
One of the victims was repeatedly raped by Winters from when she was around the age of just 16 into her 20s.
But Winters claimed he was latterly in a relationship with her and that any sexual contact was "consensual".
Winters was found guilty of five rape charges, five of acting in a lewd and libidinous manner, two indecent assaults and a further crime of assault with intent to rape.
Mr McSporran told the hearing: "He maintains his innocence in respect of the charges.
"He is a very different man today to that we heard about in evidence."
Winters was also put on the sex offenders list indefinitely.
