A PERSISTENT sex offender who subjected a woman to multiple rapes and molested an underage girl has been jailed for eight years.

Ryan Deakin, 27, carried out a series of assaults on victims in Ayrshire during his crime spree between 2019 and 2021.

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh told Deakin that he would impose a single sentence of eight years' imprisonment covering the seven offences he was earlier convicted on.

But Lord Lake added: "That immediate period in custody is not the end of the sentence."

The judge said that Deakin - formerly of New Cumnock but currently an inmate at Kilmarnock prison - would be under licence in the community for a further three years when he is released.

Deakin was warned that if he fails to comply with conditions attached to his release, he could be returned to prison.

Lord Lake told Deakin that he would be placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely following his sentencing.

Deakin was convicted of subjecting a woman to rapes on various occasions between September 2019 and January 2020 at addresses in Stevenston and Kilmarnock.

A jury at the High Court in Lanark found Deakin guilty in May of seven separate charges.

During the sex attacks, he grabbed her and pinned her down and put an arm across her neck.

Deakin went on to commit two further assaults and rapes against the victim in March and July of 2020.

In the latter offence, at a house in Kilmarnock, he carried the woman to a bedroom, struggled with her and threw her onto a bed.

He went on to commit two sexual assaults on a second woman.

He first molested her in a car in Glasgow after rubbing her leg and touching her privates.

Deakin then put his arms around her and touched her back and bottom during a second assault at a house in Stevenston.

He also sexually assaulted an under-age girl in a parked car at a location between Kilmarnock and Auchinleck in the spring of 2020.

He supplied the 15-year-old with alcohol and seized her by the body and pulled her towards him before kissing her.      

Deakin committed a further sexual assault on a male in March 2021 at an address in Stevenston during which he exposed himself.