A SOCIAL worker is behind bars for a string of depraved sex attacks on three women.

Thomas Proctor preyed on his victims - including using his position to threaten to have the children of two of them removed from their care.

The 43-year-old raped one while she was recovering in hospital.

He also took advantage of a victim after she drank water with a mystery substance in it.

Proctor had denied the accusations during a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

But, jurors found him guilty of a total of 11 charges.

They included the repeated rape and indecent assault of the first woman at different locations in Lanarkshire.

Proctor was convicted of sexually assaulting the second female at a flat in Glasgow's Maryhill.

He was finally guilty of raping and making threats to the final woman in Fife and Lanarkshire.

The crimes spanned between January 2002 and August 2019.

Judge William Gallacher remanded Proctor, of Airdrie, Lanarkshire, in custody as sentencing was adjourned for reports.

In his closing speech to jurors, prosecutor Alan Parfery told how Proctor was "calculated in a predatory fashion" towards his victims.

During one early attack with the first woman, he stated to her: "I am teaching you what you will like and what you do not like."

Her horrific ordeal at Proctor's hands included being raped while she was recuperating in hospital from a medical procedure.

She recalled that if he was "pestering" her for sex, he told her it was to be "expected".

Proctor attacked the woman again at a house in Lanarkshire after he came into the room and pulled down her pyjamas.

After the harrowing incident, the woman told the court: "He was very calm and nonchalant."

She was also choked during other sex attacks.

The woman said she tried to stay "calm" during this.

She added: "There would be more pressure if I struggled."

The court heard how social worker Proctor further belittled her by claiming she did not have a university degree or income.

She described being left to feel "worthless".

The second victim recalled waking up to finding Proctor molesting her.

Her reaction was "What the f***" and she demanded he stop.

But, Proctor told her: "You were liking it."

The final woman got to know Proctor having met him online.

She ended up in his company one night after she returned from a night out with friends at the Edinburgh Festival.

Proctor gave her a glass of water. She said they kissed - but her next memory was waking up in some pain.

Prosecutors said he had caused the woman to "ingest an unknown substance in water" to overpower her for sexual activity.

The woman asked what happened - but he casually put to her: "Do you not remember?"

Jurors heard a similar sort of incident happened on two other occasions. He gave her water, told her to “drink up” before she later awoke and had “flashbacks” to what had happened.

The court heard Proctor also flew into a rage with the woman believing she was interested in a much older delivery driver who had come to her home.

In his closing speech, Mr Parfery spoke of his position as a social worker to make sure threats to two of the women “packed a punch”.

Referring to one of the victims, the prosecutor put to him: “You told her that you held such a job and how the system worked.

“That she should be intimate with you if she wanted to keep her child. The cruellest of cruel threats.”

Proctor denied the accusation adding that he never mentioned his work to “threaten” anyone.

Mr Parfery later told jurors that there was “only one person” who knew what to say to use “for a clear and devastating outcome”.

Proctor had latterly been a social worker in the Alloa area in Clacks before being suspended.

A spokesperson for Clackmannanshire Council confirmed after the case he “was no longer employed” by the authority.