A SADISTIC rapist who abused seven women in Fife during a 16-year reign of terror has been given a life sentence.

Jerry McMurray (35) must serve a minimum of eight and a half years in prison but a judge warned him that he may never be released.

He battered and abused the women, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at various locations in Fife including Dunfermline, Rosyth and Kelty between January 1997 and July 2013.

Judge Lady Wise imposed an Order for Lifelong Restriction for what she called an “appalling course of criminal conduct”.

McMurray will serve a minimum of eight and a half years but will only be freed if it is deemed safe to put him back on the streets.

He was found guilty in September last year of 14 charges of rape, sexual assault and assault.

McMurray returned to the High Court in Glasgow for sentencing today for a string of horrifying attacks that left his victims fearing for their lives.

At a previous court appearance, he had turned to one of his victims, who was sitting in the public benches, and snarled, “You’re f*****g dead. Watch your back.” In court today, his continued denials were branded as “distorted” and “pathological” by those compiling pre-sentencing reports.

Between 1997 and 2013, he abducted, raped and sexually assaulted his victims, holding them against their will before launching ferocious physical attacks.

McMurray would punch, kick, strangle, use weapons and threaten the women with household items – spraying deodorant into the eyes of one of his victims, stabbing another with a fork and hitting a third woman with a dumb bell. He repeatedly battered and raped his first victim at an address in Dunfermline between January 1997 and April 1997.

On various occasions between October 1998 and January 2002, McMurray assaulted and indecently assaulted his second victim at an address in Rosyth.

He dragged the woman from her bed by her hair, threw her against a wall, repeatedly punched and kicked her on the head and body and threw her to the floor before stabbing her with a fork.

He then pinned her against a freezer and strangled her. On another occasion, he dragged her along the floor of a room in a house by her hair before sexually assaulting her.

In June 2003, McMurray abducted and assaulted his third victim and confined her to an address in Dunfermline.

He struck her with a pool cue, threw and pulled her by the hair before striking her head off a radiator. He then punched and slapped her on the head, forcing her to flee through a bedroom window.

On other occasions, he placed a knife against the woman’s throat and attempted to strangle her.

Between June and September 2006, McMurray abducted and assaulted another woman and held her at a location in Fife.

The court heard that he struck the woman with a dumb bell before raping her.

On 7th September 2006, he dragged her up a set of stairs at a house in Lochgelly and repeatedly punched her on the head and body before hitting her head off a wall.

He then attempted to strangle her before raping her again.

In April 2008, he assaulted another woman and physically attacked her at a house in Fife.

In October 2011, at another location in Fife, he confined a woman to a house before repeatedly punching and kicking her on the head and body. He then seized and dragged her by the hair.

The woman climbed out of a second-floor window and down scaffolding in order to escape.

Between June and July 2013, McMurray raped another woman at an address in Kelty.

He was finally arrested after police collected enough evidence to prove he was guilty of wrongdoing on a large scale.

Sentencing had been repeatedly adjourned to determine whether McMurray should be caged for life.

Today, the thug showed no remorse as he was led to cells, smirking and laughing at one of his victims who had turned up to see him jailed.

The woman broke down in tears after the hearing and had to be comforted by friends and family.