A FORMER shop and ice-cream van owner has admitted raping two young women.
Giovanni Cocozza had sex with one of his frightened victims while she clutched the hand of her toddler son. He also sexually assaulted five other girls between 1964 and 1976.
Cocozza, 76, of Low Waters Road, Hamilton, appeared at the High Court in Glasgow and admitted eight charges, including rape and acting in a lewd and libidinous manner.
He was placed on the sex offenders' list and remanded in custody. Sentence was deferred until July 13.
The court heard Cocozza raped Miss A, 20, after she visited his flat in John Street, Hamilton, between 1975 and 1976.
He had earlier raped Miss B - then aged 15 - after she visited a shop that he owned in Largs, Ayrshire, in 1973.
Cocozza, who has seven children and 15 grandchildren, also abused five other girls at his former home in Hamilton, as well as two hotels in Coatbridge and Glasgow.
The abuse was reported to the authorities in 2007 after Miss A contacted the social work department at South Lanarkshire Council.
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