A MAN who described prostitutes as being "on the lowest rung of the ladder" has been locked up for raping one of them.

At the High Court in Glasgow Christopher Savill, 42, of Main Street, Crawfordjohn, Biggar, was found guilty of forcing a 26-year-old prostitute to strip then raping her.

Immediately after his arrest detectives investigated Savill for the unsolved murder of 27-year-old street girl Emma Caldwell, whose body was found in May, 2005, in a wood near Roberton, South Lanarkshire, just six or seven miles from his home.

Emma, from Erskine, was last seen leaving a hostel in Inglefield Street, Govanhill, Glasgow, the previous evening.

In court yesterday a jury found Savill guilty by a majority verdict of raping the prostitute who had lived in the same hostel as Emma.

The attack on February 19, last year took place in Woodlands Terrace Lane, Glasgow.

Sentence was deferred until next month and Savill was detained in custody.