A MAN is to stand trial accused of a string of offences against 13 women including attempted murder, domestic abuse, sexual offences and financial crimes amounting to £200,000.
Christopher Harkins faces 44 charges, including attempting to murder one woman and filming the rape of a second.
He is accused of seizing an ex-partner by her throat and endangering her life by restricting her breathing.
Charges state that he pushed her, pulled her hair and threw her to the ground and seized her face after she refused to have sex with him in a toilet.
The 36-year-old is also alleged to have raped another woman while she was asleep and, when she woke up, grabbed her neck and held her down.
READ MORE: Man to stand trial accused of offences against 13 women
He is also said to have threatened the same woman by telling her he would post a video online of her having sex.
The charges span from 2013 to 2019 and also include a series of frauds, including taking £72,525 from one woman, telling her he would “invest” the cash for her and pretending to book a holiday then telling her to pay “her share of the cost”.
The charge also claims he had been threatened by a man for money and that he needed funds to pay "clients".
Harkins also allegedly got £75,300 and 2,400 Euros from one of the women in late 2019.
Among the claims he is said to made to her were he needed money for a "training course" for a new job and had again apparently been threatened by "unknown males".
Harkins, of Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, is accused of defrauding one of the women of £25,000.
Others are said to have been made to help pay for a holiday that did not exist.
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On other instances it is said that he provided false information in the name of different girlfriends to fraudulently obtain money from various organisations including Hitatchi Personal Finance, wonga.com, the Nationwide Building Society and Amigo Loans.
The indictment details a number of locations in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, Edinburgh, Stirling, Paisley and West Lothian.
At a hearing at the High Court in Glasgow on Friday Harkins, 36, was in the dock represented by Brian McConnachie KC in the absence of principal counsel Tony Lenehan KC.
Prosecutor Lorraine Glancy KC lodged an application for one of the alleged victims to give evidence by video link from the USA.
Ms Glancy added: "Rather than Glasgow for a trial date on May 7, I would invite the court to fix a trial date for May 3 at the High Court in Paisley.
"This will be for a period of 10 days.
"When I spoke to Mr Lenahan about the commission dates, there was no particular view about when they were fixed.
"I told him about the May 7 trial date and if it falls on May 3 I can't see there being a particular difficulty."
Judge Lord Clark set the trial for May 3 at the High Court in Paisley as well as a further hearing in September.
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