A SERIAL rapist who also hounded women on Instagram has been jailed for almost 13 years.

Steffan Cox carried out the sick crimes between November 2016 and December 2021 in Paisley as well as in Argyll and Bute and the Inner Hebrides.

This included the 25-year-old stating to one victim how he would rape her so her child could hear her cries.

Cox was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday.

He was earlier convicted of raping three women and sexually assaulting another.

Cox had pleaded guilty before the trial to sending and making sexual communications to 15 other females.

Lord Young jailed him for a total of 12 years and nine months.

The judge told Cox - who has a previous conviction for a sex offence - that he appeared to have "an obsession with rape".

He said he had read victim impact statements from two of the women.

The judge stated: "What emerges is the amount of harm you have caused and it is reasonable to infer the other victims would have been likewise."

Lord Young also remarked on the females Cox had targeted on social media.

He said: "Many were identified by you through their Instagram accounts and by reference to what they were wearing in their photographs.

"These calls included threats of rape to some of your victims.

"One was only 15 at the time. You told another woman that you would rape her so her son could hear her screaming.

"It is not difficult to imagine how terrifying those calls would have been."

Cox was further guilty of having extreme porn - featuring images of rape and strangulation - as well as also sending a film of him being intimate with a woman to others.

Lord Young said he had decided calling for a full risk assessment to be compiled on Cox, which could have led to an Order for Lifelong Restriction being imposed.

As well as the jail term, Cox will instead be supervised for four years on his release.

He was placed on the sex offenders list indefinitely and banned from contacting any of the women for the next 20 years.

Gary Allan KC, defending, said Cox accepted the offences he pleaded guilty to were "unacceptable", but had not "changed his position" of denial for the others.

Rape Crisis Scotland can be called on 0141 331 4180