A rapist who said he was disgusted with himself is behind bars after preying on vulnerable victims during a catalogue of sex crimes.
Jake Hawkins attacked victims when some were under the influence of drink, medication or asleep.
Hawkins (26) sent a message to one woman telling her: “There’s no excuse for what I did.”
He also claimed: “It wasn’t premeditated. It was me succumbing to lust.”
He carried out a series of offences against three victims between 2013 and 2017 in Dundee, Pencaitland, in East Lothian, Coupar Angus and his home village of Almondbank, in Perthshire.
Hawkins, formerly of Scroggieihill, Almondbank, had denied a string of charges during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, but was found guilty of eight offences, including six rapes, on unanimous verdicts of the jury.
The trial judge, Lady Poole, told him: “These are very serious offences.” She told jurors that it had been “a very serious and, at times, unpleasant case”.
Hawkins, who had been on bail, was remanded in custody at the end of the trial while a report with a risk assessment is prepared on him ahead of sentencing.
His counsel Matt Jackson QC said “a lengthy prison sentence” was inevitable and did not seek to have bail continued.
A victim who was raped by Hawkins told the court: “It was incredibly painful.”
The victim said they originally had contact online and arranged to meet for a “hook up”.
“I got off the bus. He was waiting across the road for me because he thought it would be bad to meet a schoolgirl. I was either a very recent leaver or in my last year at school,” said the victim.
During their initial meeting they went to woodland where Hawkins slapped the victim, put a hand around their throat and pushed them against a tree.
The victim was 17 at the time and said: “I was scared. I felt stupid. I had been raped a year before.
“I had never been to these woods before. He was the only person I could trust to get me out of there. He led me down some path, then he took a turning. It didn’t look familiar. He took me down, I realised we weren’t going back the same path. He told me ‘we are not leaving here until I get what I came for’.”
The victim told the court Hawkins subjected them to rape at the first meeting and later carried out similar attacks.
A 28-year-old woman also told the court that she repeatedly told Hawkins “no” but was attacked by him when she was crying in pain at a flat in Dundee.
Hawkins later told her in a message that he gave in to his lust and threw her feelings out the window. He also claimed to feel disgusted with himself in another message. But in evidence he claimed that he was trying to appease the woman.
In a message to another victim he said:”I know what I did was horrific but please don’t think I am a monster.”
Two of the victims assaulted by Hawkins had their throats compressed by him during the attacks.
He told advocate depute Ricchard Goddard QC: “I would argue that slight compression of the neck for sexual satisfaction is not uncommon.”
The former coffee shop worker was placed on the sex offenders’ register.
