- James Peterson was found guilty of three counts of attempted murder, two rapes and an assault on a three month old baby
- He beat one victim with a baseball bat, struck her with a knife and threatened to set her on fire with an aerosol can
Monster: James Paterson was jailed for life after he was found guilty of subjecting three pregnant women to a catalogue of violence, including stamping on their stomachs
A violent monster who terrorised pregnant women by stamping on their stomachs and trying to strangle them to death was sentence to life in prison today.
James Paterson had earlier been found guilty of three murder attempts, two rapes and assaulting a baby boy, who was less than three months old.
The trial had heard how the 24-year-old had stamped so hard on one pregnant victim he left footprints on her stomach, while another told how she still bore teeth marks where Paterson had bitten her two years earlier.
He was said to have jumped on a woman’s 'baby bump' as if it were a trampoline and all three women told a jury they had feared for their lives when Paterson tried to throttle them.
During his trial a 22-year-old woman told how Paterson had tried to set her on fire with an aerosol spray, struck her with a knife, run over her foot with a car when she was pregnant and threatened to kill her unborn child.
He also beat her with a baseball bat and dragged her around by the hair.
The woman - who like Paterson’s other victims cannot be identified for legal reasons - also told how he bit her face, wrapped electrical cables round her neck, ripped off her clothes and raped her.
Another 20-year-old woman described how she passed out when Paterson grabbed her by the throat and stopped her breathing and how he kicked her in the stomach while she was pregnant, bit her on the body and raped her.
A third mum, aged 23, said Paterson subjected her to a catalogue of violence which started when she was between four and five months pregnant, including stamping on her stomach.
