A serial abuser who raped a woman and attacked another when she was breast feeding a baby has been jailed for 10 years after a judge said he had subjected a string of victims to "a storm of violence".

Marc McKillop put a belt round the neck of one woman and restricted her breathing in another assault.

The victim told a court: "He strangled me with a belt." The woman said she had rowed with McKillop and he "flew off the handle". She said she was left struggling for breath and when asked how long it went on for replied: "Long enough for me to see stars and think I was going to die."

McKillop, 27, of Rothes, in Moray, was earlier convicted of a total of 21 charges at the end of a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The offences included rape, indecent assault, assault to permanent disfigurement, assault to the danger of life and attempted murder. He was acquitted of a further rape charge on a not proven verdict.

The crimes were committed against a series of woman between 2006 and this year at addresses in Moray and Aberdeen.

Lady Scott told him he had been found guilty of "a sustained and serious course of violent conduct against six young women over a period of about seven years".

The judge said she was in no doubt from the appalling course of conduct McKillop posed a risk of serious harm to women. Lady Scott said his behaviour had left victims depressed and in some cases suicidal.

She said they remained "profoundly effected" and are in the process of rebuilding their lives.