A riding instructor who groped a series of teenage girls at stables all over Central Scotland has been jailed.

James Keers targeted five different girls aged 13 to 16 over a 14-year period, sometimes offering them the use of one of his own horses to befriend them.

One girl was taken repeatedly on treks to "build up her confidence", but the rides ended in woods where the married father put his hands down the back of her jodhpurs,

Stirling Sheriff Court was told on Wednesday, December 2.

Keers, 56, was jailed for two years and three months, made subject to an extended sentence of a further two years during which he will be supervised by social workers and can be returned to jail if he offends again, and placed on the sex offenders' register for life.

Sheriff William Gilchrist ordered that he should be reported to Scottish Ministers with a view to placing him on the list of persons forbidden from working with children.

Sheriff Gilchrist told him: "This was conduct you engaged in over 14 years, and involved five young girls who had clearly placed their trust in you, as had their parents.

"You abused that trust, and you did so in a reprehensible fashion."

The court heard that Keers' actions began in 2000 and continued until August last year (2014), when one of his victims, who was 13 when he began to abuse her, but is now a woman of 25, went to the police.

Checks into youngsters he'd had contact with at a series of locations, including the Fishcross Equestrian Centre in Clackmannanshire, the Kingsbarns Equestrian Centre near Falkirk, and West Riverside Farm in the Carron Valley, led police to his other victims.

Karen Wilson, prosecuting, said Keers' oldest victim, now a woman of 28, was targeted when she stabled her pony at a farm near Denny, Stirlingshire, where Keers, a keen horseman, helped out in the stables.

Ms Wilson, the depute fiscal, said the woman, then a girl of 13, began to notice that Keers' hand would "slip" and brush against her bottom while they were together in the stables.

Later, she said, Keers "put his hands down the back of her jodhpurs and touched her bare bottom for 15 seconds".

Ms Wilson said: "The girl was in shock and said nothing. The accused removed his hand and carried on as normal.

"He continued to touch her on other occasions, however, when other people were around her but they were obscured from view by the horse in the stable."

The victim who eventually blew the whistle was targeted at two farms near Denny.

Ms Wilson said: "The girl had needed to get rid of her own horse, and he offered her one of his own.

"He became her riding instructor.

"He approached her mother to see if he could take her on treks to increase her confidence, and took her on numerous treks when she was 13.

"During the summer of 2004 he took her on a trek to a wooded area. He instructed her to get off her horse. He then approached her and put both hands on her over her clothing. She said no, but he would not stop.

"Over the coming weeks he took her on numerous other treks to the same area, and touched her through and inside her jodhpurs.

"She did not say anything at the time, because she was scared it would result in her horse being taken away."

Keers also texted one of his victims, initially talking about horses, but then asking if she and her friends were lesbians, and "asked which one of them was wearing a strap-on".

Another girl he was teaching was groped as he pretended to check how much space there was at the front of her saddle.

And he told a 16-year-old girl whom he assaulted by grabbing her bottom: "Everyone that's rode with me I've had a feel of their arse."

Keers was interviewed by police in October and November 2014 and "made various admissions of guilt".

Keers, of Dalshannon View, Condorrat, North Lanarkshire, pleaded guilty to two charges of lewd and libidinous practices towards 13-year-old girls, three charges of engaging in unlawful sexual activity with girls under 16, and two charges of sexually assaulting 16-year-old girls. The offences spanned a time period from August 2000 to August 2014.

Defence solicitor Stephen Maguire said Keers had no significant previous convictions.

The lawyer added: "He recognises his conduct was reprehensible in the extreme. It represents a gross breach of trust, and I cannot explain it or rationalise it in any way."

Sheriff Gilchrist told Keers: "You certainly require to be subject to statutory supervision, but that will be after you have served a custodial sentence, for such a sentence is inevitable and appropriate, given the gravity of these offences."

Keers showed no emotion, but a woman, thought to be his daughter, sobbed on the public benches as he was led to the cells.