A convicted sex offender from Harpenden was found guilty of raping three teenagers.

Oscar Abernethy-Cortez, 24, of Bramble Close, raped a 14-year-old twice, and also raped a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old.

He was placed on a sex offender programme for three years and ordered to register as a sex offender for five years in June 2013, after raping a 14-year-old girl and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.

Appearing in Luton Crown Court on Friday, May 26, Abernethy-Cortez was charged with four more sex crimes. The first two offences were alleged to have taken place in 2008 or 2009 against a girl who was about 14, the third charge was in November 2016 and the fourth was in August or September 2016.

Prosecutor Abigail Husbands said: “The defendant targeted young, naive women.”

She described how the 14-year-old girl jumped out of her bedroom window to meet the defendant, and protested when he started kissing her and then raped her. The jury was told that the girl met him again and he raped her for the second time. She went to the police in June last year.

Abernethy-Cortez carried the second victim upstairs to his bedroom and raped her, and drove the third victim, an 18-year-old, to his home before raping her.

When arrested Abernethy-Cortez, who pleaded not guilty to four charges of rape, said nothing sexual happened with the 14-year-old, the sex with the 17-year-old was consensual, and made no comment on the third teenager’s allegations.

He was remanded in custody by Judge Richard Foster, who asked probation officers to assess whether, in legal terms, Abernethy-Cortez is a dangerous offender.

Abernethy-Cortez will appear in court for sentencing on Friday, July 14.