A HIGH risk sex attacker who fled to Spain after leaving a little girl haunted by nightmares has been jailed for life.

Serial rapist and child molester David MacBride, 44, was brought back to Scotland this year to face justice after failing to turn up for a court hearing in 2016.

MacBride, formerly of Westwood Avenue, Kirkcaldy, carried out sex assaults on women and children between 2007 and 2014 at addresses in Cardenden, Glenrothes, Burntisland, Kirkcaldy, Methil and Dunfermline.

Some women were subjected to multiple rapes and he told a girl, who he started abusing from the age of five, "not to tell anyone or my mum would go to jail".

In October he was found guilty of eight rapes and three sexual assaults after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

MacBride also admitted breaching bail by failing to attend a procedural hearing because he had gone to Spain.

He returned for sentencing yesterday (Thursday) and Lord Uist imposed an order for lifelong restriction.

He told MacBride that he'd have to serve a minimum of 10 years before he is able to apply for parole.

However, he will not be released until there is enough evidence to show he no longer poses a threat to women.

Lord Uist added: "The criminal justice social work report which I obtained on you stated that you posed a risk of further analogous offending. I therefore made a risk assessment order in respect of you.

"The risk assessor appointed by the court has now reported that your being at liberty presents a high risk to the safety of the public at large. I am therefore satisfied that the risk criteria are met in your case.

"Accordingly, I make an order for lifelong restriction in respect of you. That order constitutes a sentence of imprisonment for an indefinite period.

"You must not assume that you will be released at the end of that period: you will be released only when it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that you continue to be confined in prison."

During the trial, a 29-year-old woman said she was 19 when MacBride first attacked her.

She said she was "quite panicked" and told him to get off but he ignored her pleas to stop.

She added: "I asked him to get off me again. Still he never did. He ended up pulling my underwear off. He carried on and had sex with me."

The victim said: "He thought there was nothing wrong with a bit of rough sex. I had marks round my wrists."

A second woman, now 44, said MacBride turned up unexpectedly at her flat in 2010, as her partner was in hospital recovering from an attack which resulted in him being in a coma.

The woman was surprised to see him but agreed to let him stay the night while she slept on a couch.

She woke and found MacBride trying to carry out an oral sexual assault on her.

She said she pretended to be asleep because she "was not sure what he was going to do next".

She said: "I just froze."

Her daughter came in and caught MacBride in the act and began shouting at him and threatened to phone the police, prompting him to leave.

A girl revealed that MacBride had first abused her when she was aged five.

She told the court she was left feeling scared and added: "He said not to tell anyone or my mum would go to jail."

During recorded interviews with the child, now aged 13, she revealed she was having nightmares about MacBride "coming to get us".

She said he made her touch his "man bits" and abused her on an occasion when he was left with her as other family members attended a relative's funeral.

During a police interview over the allegations made against him, father-of-nine MacBride told officers: "This is all b******t."

The pony-tailed fabricator claimed that one of the women was out to get him and was seeking revenge. MacBride was arrested in Cadiz in January before being brought back to Scotland.

Lord Uist said: "You fled from justice by going to continental Europe and had to be brought back from Spain to stand trial.

"This was a very serious breach of bail by deliberately fleeing abroad and causing much public expense to find you and bring you back."

Fife officers worked with police forces across Europe to locate MacBride in Spain.

Detective Inspector Scott Davidson, from Fife's Public Protection Unit, said: “MacBride is a dangerous individual and we welcome this sentence.

"He has now been given an Order for Lifelong Restriction due to the risk he poses to the public, and we hope the victims can now begin to move on with their lives.

“MacBride attempted to evade justice by fleeing the country, yet due to the bravery and courage of the victims he was brought before the courts to stand trial for his crimes.

“I would like to thank the victims and partner forces who assisted us in bringing MacBride to justice."