Violent rapist defrauded ex-partner out of £214,000

A man who conned nine former partners out of £214,000 has been found guilty of raping one of his victims in her sleep.

Christopher Harkins, 37, was also found guilty of abusing a woman to the point of endangering her life and committing four sexual offences.

The High Court in Paisley heard he used the names of some of his victims to obtain short-term loans.

Scottish police described the gambling addict as a “violent and despicable individual” who preyed on women looking for love.

Harkins, of Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, was sentenced to 15 months in prison last year after defrauding a financial professional of £16,000.

During his most recent trial, he admitted to eleven separate counts of fraud, spanning from January 2013 to November 2019.

The amounts collected by Harkins ranged from £350 to £72,525.

He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced next month.

Judge Alistair Watson told him: “This was a shocking catalog of financial, physical and casual sexual abuse of your victims.”

“You have repeatedly portrayed yourself as a successful person when in reality you are not.”

The court heard Harkins exploited women of varying levels of vulnerability.

Judge Watson added: “You did this over a number of years, moving from victim to victim and ruining lives in the process.”

“The harm you have caused to your victims as a result cannot be overstated.”

A 31-year-old woman recounted how she met Harkins on the dating app Tinder in August 2018.

He claimed he was an IT manager and also ran a wholesale foreign exchange business.

And Harkins told the victim he needed money to pay the people working for him because his bank account was “frozen.”

The fraudster took more than £9,000 from the woman after claiming he needed money for furniture and a holiday.

The same victim told how she caught Harkins trying to have sex with her as she slept at his home in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire.

Harkins later posed as a successful IT employee and got involved in a relationship with another woman he had previously met on Tinder.

This time he persuaded his victim to set up an online Betfair account in her name, claiming his account was blocked.

Prosecutor Scott McKenzie said: “He spent money from her bank account on her behalf to enable him to place bets.”

Harkins took a total of £75,525 from her between December 2018 and April 2019.

The fraudster, who also claimed to be an engineer, received a further £75,300 from another woman he met on Facebook in 2019.

Harkins’ earliest victim said he added her to the social networking site in 2012.

She claimed he wooed her with champagne and lavish gifts, but their relationship later changed.

The woman said Harkins made her “walk on eggshells” and was violent toward her in three separate incidents.

This included him grabbing her face and kicking her in the stomach after she was pushed out of the property in her pyjamas.

Police said Harkins’ victims came from Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, Edinburgh, Stirling, Paisley and West Lothian.

Det Insp Iain Renfrew said: “Christopher Harkins is a violent and despicable individual who exploited women in search of love and companionship.

“He led her to believe that they were in a loving and exclusive relationship, but that was far from the truth. His only motive was money.”

The officer said once Harkins developed relationships, he turned to “manipulation, threats, coercive control and violence.”

He also praised the women who testified during the trial and urged anyone who experienced similar abuse to come forward.