Sex offender Clark Thomson subjected women to 20-year campaign of abuse and rape attacks

A sex offender who repeatedly raped three women during a catalogue of abuse that spanned two decades has been jailed for seven years.

Clark Thomson carried out attacks on victims in his home town of Paisley and addresses in Renfrewshire.

The 45-year-old formerly of Paisley had denied a series of charges during an earlier trial but was found guilty of three offences of rape and a further three of assault.

One was to the danger of life of the victim and she also suffered an attack that resulted in severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh that a jury had convicted him of “sustained, serious sexual abuse”.

Judge John Morris KC said: “Only a substantial custodial sentence is appropriate in your case.”

He told Thomson that statements provided to the court by victims disclosed continuing trauma suffered after his actions.

Thomson began his offending in 2001 at addresses in Paisley, including his former home in Spoolers Road, when he assaulted a woman and subjected her to rape attacks.

Thomson went on to subject a second woman to rapes at an address in Renfrew in 2011 and attacked a third woman who was seized by the body and pushed onto a bed at a house in Lochwinnoch, in Renfrewshire, in 2015.

His fourth victim was also subjected to rapes at a house in Johnstone, in Renfrewshire, between October 2020 and New Year’s Day in 2021.

Defence counsel Joe Barr said that Thomson had previously accepted in his evidence that he could be aggressive.

He said: “He has asked me, even at this late stage, to convey his apologies to the complainers for his behaviour.”

Mr Barr told the court: “He understands he will be offered courses and he has assured me he intends to take any opportunity given to him.”

Thomson was told that he will be on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely following his sentencing.