A rapist is facing a lengthy jail sentence after he was convicted of choking three teenage victims during brutally violent assaults.
Christopher Nelson, 31, of Dundee, told one girl he attacked aged just 17 at the time that he “enjoyed” strangling people.
He now faces a potential order for lifelong restriction after a judge branded him a “potential serious danger to young women” following the jury’s verdict on Monday.
The 11 women and four men on the jury found him guilty of one rape, two sexual assaults, two serious assaults and three charges of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner.
The trial at the High Court in Dundee heard that Nelson sexually assaulted his first victim, then aged 17, in April 2007 while her boyfriend lay in hospital suffering from a heart condition.
Nelson went on to rape a second girl, then aged 16, after befriending her on Facebook when she was just 14. That attack took place in a flat in the Hilltown area in November last year.
The girl told how they began a sexual relationship but that he later violently raped her after plying her with vodka before turning aggressive after finding out she had been talking to her ex-boyfriend.
Nelson was further convicted of violent assaults on two other girls.
The trial heard one of the girls, who was 17 when she was attacked by Nelson on Valentine’s Day 2008 at a hotel in Dundee, tell how she had met him at the hotel before the attack took place.
She said Nelson, who has three previous convictions for domestic assault, turned violent after she received a text message from a male friend causing him to flip.
The woman said she had to flee naked from the hotel room into a corridor, before returning to the room. She thought he had then left but shortly after he jumped out at her from the hotel room’s bath.
Advocate depute Bruce Erroch told the jury: “What the Crown case shows is a pattern of violence against young women violence often motivated by jealousy.
“This is a man who doesn’t control himself when drinking excessively,” he said.
“He admits that himself to police where he says he has been in scraps before.
The jury took almost three hours to convict him of eight of the charges, finding one of the rapes not proven by majority.
Defence QC Mark Stewart said Nelson worked as a carpet fitter and lived in Dundee before being charged with the attacks.
He said: “None of his previous convictions resulted in a prison sentence.”
Judge Lady Scott deferred sentence until September 17 at the High Court in Edinburgh for a full risk assessment to be carried out on Nelson with a view to potentially imposing an order for lifelong restriction.
She said: “The nature and circumstances of these offences suggests to me a pattern of behaviour and that there’s a potential for serious danger posed by the accused to young women.
“You will be remanded in custody for these reports to be prepared.”
Nelson was also placed on the sex offenders register.