A VIOLENT rapist who left a woman fearing she was going to die during a strangling attack was facing a lengthy prison sentence on Monday after perpetrating a campaign of abuse against victims.

Steven Noon brutalised and sexually assaulted four victims during a crime spree that spanned more two decades.

One victim was throttled until she passed out, subjected to tattooing on her body with a tattoo gun and beaten with a belt and shoes.

Another woman was headbutted while she was holding her infant daughter and strangled by him. Noon also insisted that he insert tampons into a further victim. Two of them were subjected to rape ordeals by him.

A fourth victim was indecently assaulted by Noon, who exposed himself to him after he had been freed on bail on two occasions at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Noon, 40, a prisoner in Edinburgh, had denied a string of charges during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but was found guilty of 16 offences, including rape, sexual assault, assault to danger of life and abusive behaviour.

The crimes were committed between September 1999 and September 2021 in Edinburgh, Tranent, Haddington, Ormiston and Gourdon in Aberdeenshire.

'Very serious charges'

After the jury returned its verdicts, the trial judge Lord Young told Noon: "You have been convicted of a series of very serious charges."

One woman told the court that she had first met Noon as a teenager in Edinburgh. She had liked dressing in short skirts and bright colours but found that he did not approve as he claimed it attracted the attention of other men.

She said that on one occasion they had been out at a club in Edinburgh and had been drinking before they returned to a flat. She was wearing a red dress.

She said: "He didn't like it. He tore it off. He said it was my fault all the men were looking at me. I ended up getting a really bad beating."

The woman, now 39, said that the abuse continued at addresses in Tranent and later in Aberdeenshire. She said that Noon would put two hands around her throat and apply pressure.

'I knew I was going to die'

She said: "It was hard to breathe. It was very scary."

She said that she tried to fight back but Noon was stronger than her. She told the court he raped her "many times".

She said that he would force himself on her and even if she shouted, screamed and pushed him she would still be raped.

The woman said that on one occasion, he held her head over a hot hob after she had burnt food and had to start making a meal afresh.

She said that during a final attack when she was subjected to a sex assault and strangulation she said he was pushing her down so hard that she was losing feeling in her legs.

The woman said: "I knew I was going to die."

The attack only stopped after she stuck her nails into his back as far as she could.

Noon was placed on the sex offenders' register. He was remanded in custody while a background report was prepared on him ahead of sentencing.