A VIOLENT domestic brute who repeatedly beat and raped two women was facing a lengthy prison sentence last night.

Scott Chalmers, of New Street, Stevenston, was convicted of five rapes and a series of brutal assaults, some of which verged on torture.

His abuse about the weight of one of his victim’s caused her to lose weight so rapidly her family thought she was addicted to heroin.

The 23-year-old, who was a former resident of Kilwinning’s Ladyford Avenue, was warned about contempt during his trial at the High Court in Livingston because he repeatedly sniggered and smirked as his distressed victims gave evidence.

The jury took just over three hours yesterday (Tuesday) to return majority verdicts finding Chalmers guilty of all the rapes and unanimous verdicts convicting him of two assaults to injury and two breaches of the peace.

The unemployed butcher committed all the offences in a domestic setting at addresses in Ardrossan, Saltcoats, Stevenston and Kilwinning between September 2012 and November 2015.

Following the jury’s verdict it was revealed that Chalmers had previous convictions for assault and disorder with domestic aggravations as well as embezzlement.

Judge Lord Bannatyne added Chalmers’ name to the sex offenders’ register and ordered that Scottish ministers be informed of his conviction under protection of vulnerable groups laws.

He called for background reports to assess the risk the accused might pose to other women and the public in general and deferred sentence until December 14 at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Thanking the jury, Lord Bannatyne told them: “This was undoubtedly not a pleasant case to listen to. Unlike me, you’re not used to listening to this type of evidence.”

During the trial, the jury was played a chilling recording of foul-mouthed, abusive messages Chalmers left one of his victims after she left him.

The calls included a torrent of vile name calling, telling the single mum she was “a f*****g hacket wee w***e”, “a tramp” and “a black b*****d”.

The jury heard him tell her: “I hope you slash your wrists and die. Obviously, I hate you.”

In a slurred final message left in the early hours by Chalmers of November 27, 2015, he apologises and talks of his concern for her.

Suddenly his attitude changes and he threatens her: “I’ll f*****g cut you open. I’ll f*****g kill your wean, I swear to God. F**k you!” before hanging up.

During her time with “controlling” Chalmers, she said he repeatedly insulted her by calling her a ‘fat cow’, a ‘fat bucket’, a ‘fat slapper’.

She said he told her: ‘Look at you. You’re a disgrace. You’re so fat nobody will ever want you’.

The 30-year-old revealed that she had dropped from a 16 to a size six dress size because of his constant abusive rants about her weight.

She said she lost weight so quickly that friends thought she had become addicted to heroin.

The woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, said Chalmers followed his daily verbal abuse by increasing his physical and sexual attacks against her.

She told the jury: “He’d hit me and call me names to the point where it would just be easier to have sex with him.

“At first I used to fight and say no, but at the end I’d just lie there like a rag doll and hope it would be over, because he’d hit me if I didn’t.

“It was easier to have sex than to get hit, get shouted at, get called names. It was Scott’s way or no way. You just had to do what he wanted.”

She told how the terrifying control freak slashed her sofas with one of the large butcher’s knives he kept around the house when she refused sex.

On another occasion she claimed he pulled her across the floor by her hair, pressed his finger into her gum then tried to strangle her while forcing her face into a pillow.

The other victim, now aged 23, gave evidence that Chalmers repeatedly raped her during the time she spent with him.

She said he threatened her, locked her in the house and punched her.

He once poured boiling water over her hand and regularly threw heavy objects such as ashtrays at her, she said.

Giving evidence, Chalmers - admitted he had “occasionally” hit the women but strenuously denied sexually assaulting them.