A DUNFERMLINE child rapist has been jailed for six years today (Tuesday) after molesting little girls when he was a teenager acting as a babysitter for the victims.

Tony Paton targeted three children for abuse over a four-year period and raped one victim when she was aged five or six.

The rape victim later told police that he made her have sex with him and she kept saying "no" during the ordeal.

A judge told Paton at the High Court in Edinburgh: "Your victims were all very young, between four and six years of age."

Lady Scott told the sex offender: "This is a very serious course of sexual abuse of young children."

The judge said Paton was himself a child at the time of the offending and the sentence she would impose would be very significantly less than if the crimes had been committed by an adult.

During a trial, Paton, 27, of Macbeth Road, had denied three charges of indecency and one of rape committed at houses in Dunfermline, but was earlier convicted of all four offences.

His first victim was aged four or five when he exposed himself and got her to touch him on an occasion between May 2004 and May 2006.

He then went on to abuse a second girl when she was aged five or six between June 2006 and June 2008 and molested her and carried out oral sex acts on her. He also raped the girl once during the same period.

Paton's third child victim was aged four or five between September 2006 and September 2007 when he carried out oral sex on her on a single occasion.

The rape victim told the court: "It only happened one time." She said she was aware of rumours that Paton had done things to another girl.

One of his victims, now aged 17, said that on a visit to a house, Paton had asked her to go to a bathroom and, after she went, he followed her and closed the door.

He had then asked her to take down her trousers which she did and her underpants were taken down before he molested her and asked her to touch him.

She told the court: "I didn't know what was going on. I didn't really understand it. I thought it was just like a game. He was older than me. I just thought it would be allowed."

She said one of the other victims had later contacted her and asked her if she was willing to go to the police and she said she would be.

After Paton was found guilty of the sex charges, advocate depute Keith O'Mahony told the court that he had previous convictions but had never been jailed.

Defence counsel Michael Anderson asked the judge to take account of the relatively young age of Paton when he committed the offences.

He said: "He enjoys the continued support of his family and his partner."

Mr Anderson said Paton accepted that he would be jailed following the jury's verdicts. He said: "On his release he will not move back to the local area. He wishes to start afresh, if that is possible for him."

Paton was placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.