A 'CRUEL, cowardly and wicked' foster parent who committed a catalogue of rape and sexual abuse against children has been jailed for 10 years.

Ronald Wilson, 65, was unanimously convicted in March 2017 of three rape offences and indecency and indecent assault crimes against three girls between 1975 and 1987.

Wilson, of Maybole, South Ayrshire, had denied a string of rape and sexual abuse charges and shook his head as a jury returned guilty verdicts of abuse on victims.

These included a girl of five while he was living in Dunfermline and also in the South Ayrshire town.

He also indecently assaulted a second girl from the age of 15 between 1983 and 1985 whom he later raped.

The sex offender also preyed on another little girl when she was aged just four and five at houses in Maybole.

Sentence on Wilson was deferred for Edinburgh High Court to obtain reports about his character.

On Thursday, defence advocate Lorenzo Alonzi told the court that his client maintained he was innocent of all wrong doing - a position which he adopted throughout his trial. 

Judge Michael O'Grady QC told Wilson that he had no other option but to send him to prison. 

He said: "It will suffice to say that you have been convicted of appalling crimes, committed while you were in a position of trust, against the most vulnerable of children. 

"You are a cruel, cowardly and wicked man."