A STALKER who was jailed for preying on frightened women over an eight year period has lost a bid to have his conviction quashed.

Pervert Edward McBride, who changed his name to Guy Ritchie, received a two-year sentence at Paisley Sheriff Court in December 2015.

The 52-year-old, who was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register, started harassing after moving from Nottingham to the Scottish town.

However, his lawyers went to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh to argue that the Sheriff who heard the case had misdirected jurors on a legal matter during his closing speech to them.

McBride's legal team claimed that their client- who claims to be an author -had suffered a miscarriage of justice because of Sheriff David Pender's error.

However, in a written judgement issued at the court on Tuesday, judges Lord Carloway, Lady Paton and Lady Clark of Calton refused to quash McBride's conviction.

The judges ruled that even although Sheriff Pender did make a mistake when directing jurors, the error wasn't significant enough to affect the outcome of the case.

The appeal judges ruled that there was still enough evidence to convict McBride.

In the judgement, Lord Carloway wrote: "In these circumstances, the court is satisfied that there were was no material misdirection which could have resulted in a miscarriage of justice.

"The appeal must be refused."

During proceedings last year, the court heard how McBride, of Stock Street, Paisley, moved back to the town several years ago after living for a time in Nottingham.

The court heard how his shocking conduct began back in 2006 when he began to shadow his first victim, approaching her and making sexually offensive comments.

He continued to stalk her over a four-year period.

In 2007, he approached another woman, targeting her on various occasions in Paisley, before making sexual remarks to her and placing her in a state of fear and alarm.

Between 2010 and 2014, he continually followed one of his victims, hid in bushes outside her home, watched her in her home and made sickening sexual remarks to her.

He was finally snared after stalking another woman at a library in Drymen, Stirlingshire, where he repeatedly pestered a member of staff there, loitered at her place of work and asked her to go on dates with him.

Those offences were committed on several occasions between 2013 and 2014.

A jury convicted him of a total of four charges, some of which dated back to 2006 in November 2015.

In December 2015, defence agent Kirsty McGeehan said that although the offences had involved some extremely offensive sexual remarks, there had at no time been any escalation to physical contact.

It also emerged that McBride had a previous conviction for similar offences from when he was living in England.

Passing sentence, Sheriff Pender said: "You may maintain your innocence, but you have been found guilty by a jury of conduct spanning an eight-year period.

"It is also alarming that you have a previous conviction in England for an analogous offence."