A man has been jailed for six years for sexually abusing young girls he babysat as a teenager.

Tony Paton, 27, from Dunfermline, Fife, abused three young girls over a four-year period, including raping a girl who was just five or six years old.

During the trial, at the Edinburgh High Court heard before Judge Lady Scott, Paton denied three charges of indecency and one rape charge.

The court heard that his first victim was aged four or five when he exposed himself and got her to touch him on an occasion between May 2004 and May 2006.

He then molested and carried out sex acts on a second girl, between June 2006 and June 2008. He also raped the girl once during the same period.

Paton's third child victim was aged four or five between September 2006 and September 2007 when he carried out a sex act on her on a single occasion.

The rape victim told the court: "It only happened one time."

She said she was aware of rumours that Paton had done things to another girl.

One of his victims, now aged 17, said that on a visit to a house Paton had asked her to go to a bathroom and after she went he followed her and closed the door.

Paton had then molested her and asked her to touch him.

She told the court: "I didn't know what was going on, I didn't really understand it. I thought it was just like a game.

"He was older than me. I just thought it would be allowed."

She said one of the other victims had later contacted her and asked her if she was willing to go to the police and said she would be.

After Paton was found guilty of the sex charges advocate depute Keith O'Mahony told the court that he had previous convictions but had never been jailed.

Defence counsel Michael Anderson asked the judge to take account of the relatively young age of Paton when he committed the offences.

He said: "He enjoys the continued support of his family and his partner."

Mr Anderson said Paton accepted that he would be jailed following the jury's verdicts.

He said: "On his release he will not move back to the local area. He wishes to start afresh, if that is possible for him."

Paton was placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely