A MAN who raped two women in North Ayrshire was today jailed for six years.

Scott Crews, 28, was convicted of raping and physically abusing them and assaulting a third woman between 2010 and 2015 at various addresses in Irvine, Beith and Ardrossan.

Jailing Crews, Judge Bill Dunlop said: “It was quite clear to the jury and to me that you subjected these women to basically lives of misery. You still don't accept that you did that  and you still don't admit responsibility.”

Crews, who was placed on the sex offenders' register, will also be monitored in the community for two years after his release from jail.

Crews raped one woman in a house in Irvine on various occasions between December 2012 and 2014.

He was also convicted of presenting a knife at her, seizing her by the throat and pinning her against a door.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that Crews totally controlled the woman's life by telling her what to wear, telling her who should could contact and demanding to know her whereabouts.

He raped his second victim while she was sleeping at a house in Irvine. Crews also seized the woman by the throat, held scissors at her face and spat on her.

He was convicted of sending abusive texts to both women.

Crews was found guilty of assaulting a third woman by striking her on the head and body, trying to burn her with a lit cigarette, grabbing her by the hair and pulling her along the floor while she was pregnant.

A charge of raping the third woman while she was asleep was found not proven by the jury.

Solicitor advocate Murray Macara, defending, said that Crews continues to deny all the offences.