A GALASHIELS paedophile has been locked up after being found guilty of a string of sexual offences going back almost 40 years.

Stephen Charters began preying on his victims from an early age - and continued to molest and rape into adulthood.

The 51 year old had denied a string of offences during his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

But he was eventually convicted of seven sex crimes, including two charges of rape.

He was charged with committing sexual offending from the age of 12 – the youngest age for prosecution in Scotland.

Charters began by molesting a younger girl at a house near Melrose in 1977 and exposing himself and carrying sex acts in her presence.

He later raped the girl when she was aged 11 and he was a teenager.

He also targeted another girl for abuse from the age of four and carried out indecency offences against her in the Borders, at a house in Gorebridge, in Midlothian and at Edinburgh's Royal Commonwealth Pool.

Charters also made sexual and inappropriate remarks to a girl aged between 10 and 11 between 1995 and 1997 in East Kilbride and during a car journey.

He had been on bail during his trial but after he was found guilty of the offences was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing next month.