A RAPIST who fled to Africa has been jailed for 10 years for crimes described by a judge as a “catalogue of depravity”.

James Arnott, 47, carried out the offences between 1979 and 1998 in Glenrothes and Glasgow and had been due to stand trial in September 2015.

However, the father of nine later handed himself into the authorities in Ghana, where he had fled.

He was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday after being found guilty of a total of seven charges, including rape and indecent assault.

Judge Norman Ritchie QC said that it was “unsurprising” that Arnott was convicted given the victims’ evidence.

He added: “This was a catalogue of depravity over almost 20 years.”

Arnott repeatedly raped a woman over a period of four years starting in 1979.

The former plasterer later abused three girls until the 1990s.

One was aged around five when it began, while the other two were in their early teens.He preyed on them at houses in Crookston, Glasgow, and Glenrothes.

Matthew Jackson, defending, said Arnott still protested his innocence.

He told how Arnott did not turn up for a previous hearing adding: “He had been in Ghana at the time.

“There was also a failed suicide attempt.

“I understand that he handed himself in and was then brought back to this country.”