A serial abuser has been convicted of attacking and threatening a former partner - but a jury cleared him of raping her.

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow found David Millard, 38, guilty last week of assaulting the woman on various dates between March 1, 2011 and November 5, 2014, at properties in Airdrie, Helensburgh, Rosneath, Cove and elsewhere.

That charge stated that he seized hold of her body, dragged her by her body, pushed her on the body, punched and struck her on the head, pinned her against a couch, struggled with her and struck her on the body with a baton, all to her injury.

The jury also found him guilty of shouting and swearing at the same woman on the same dates and locations, and also at properties in Clydebank and Dumbarton, as well as behaving aggressively, damaging household items, throwing items within the properties, sending threatening and abusive messages to her, directing derogatory comments towards her and uttering threats.

But the jury found him not guilty of four charges accusing him of raping the woman at addresses in Helensburgh, Rosneath and Cove between 2012 and 2014.

Three further charges were found not proven.

These alleged that Millard, who was originally from Lambeth, had raped a second woman multiple times at a property in Dumbarton, and that he attempted to rape her at the same address, between April 2016 and January 2017.

In August 2017 Millard, listed in court papers as a resident of George Street, Alexandria, was sentenced at Dumbarton Sheriff Court to three years in prison on separate charges of subjecting the same two women to months of extreme stalking.

Woman A told Millard’s trial at the High Court in Glasgow that she was first raped by Millard in June 2011.

She said: “I begged him to stop. He would not stop.”

She described a second alleged attack after she had a suspected miscarriage, telling the court: “I did not consent. We were arguing about the miscarriage, about it being my fault.

“I remember begging him not to.”

Woman A was asked why she didn’t tell the police about all the alleged rapes when she first spoke to them.

She said: “It’s difficult to say it out loud. It’s degrading and shameful and I felt like it was my fault.

“I wanted to shut myself away. I wanted to die.”

The witness said Millard told her it was not rape, and that she was “asking for it - he made me ask”.

Giving evidence, Millard said he had been an alcoholic and a binge drinker.

Asked whether he had ever raped either complainer, or had ever thrown items at Woman A and threatened to kill her, he said: “No, I did not.”

The jury accepted his defence that the sex was consensual and that he had not thrown items at her.

A charge that Millard consumed drugs in the presence of and while having care of two children was dropped by the Crown during the trial.

Prosecutor Chris McKenna said that Millard has previous convictions for assault with a knife in 2012 and for threatening or abusive behaviour in 2017.

Sentence was deferred until next month.