A serial rapist guilty of attacks on a teenage girl has gone AWOL.

Artur Drazkowski was convicted of eight charges following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow last month.

Jurors heard how the 38-year-old later admitted in a text that he was "evil".

The crimes - which included five rape charges - were committed against the youngster between December 2017 and February 2019, mainly in Clydebank.

Drazkowski was snared after the brave victim gave seven hours of harrowing testimony which was played during the trial.

He was due to be sentenced for the attacks this week.

Drazkowski had not been present for the verdict last month having been discovered in his car apparently in a "bad way".

Judge Thomas Welsh KC heard at the time he was either in hospital in Glasgow or Stirling.

Drazkowski's lawyer Sean Templeton then went on to state he did not know exactly where Drazkowski was as police would not share details.

No warrant was sought at the time for his arrest.

Drazkowski, of Clydebank, remained on bail - but was not in the dock to be sentenced last week.

It is believed there are fears Drazkowski may have absconded abroad.

This time a warrant was issued as the hunt continues to capture the dangerous sex predator.

The trial heard how the attacks included Drazkowski plying the young victim with alcohol, cannabis as well as a mystery substance.

He was also violent with her and raped her after locking the terrified girl in a car.

Damning text messages helped convict Drazkowski.

The court heard that in one to another person, he said he had "pangs of conscience because of what I did to her".

The predator added: "I lost my morality somewhere along the road."

In a further text about "liking young ones", he replied: "You know it. You only live once."

He also chillingly stated: "I am evil."

The girl eventually spoke to police having confronted Drazkowski to brand him a "rapist and a paedophile".

In his closing speech to jurors, prosecutor Adrian Stalker said: "It is not something she was saying about him just because he was harassing her and she wanted to make her complaint as serious as possible."

But, during the trial, Drazkowski claimed the accusations were "complete fabrication" and that "simply nothing happened".

Mr Stalker told the jury: "Some details were difficult to recall (for the victim) because since they happened, she had tried to put these events out of her mind."

Drazkowski was not at court to hear the guilty verdicts last month.

Mr Stalker told Judge Welsh at the time: "He is in hospital in Glasgow or Stirling.

"We do not know of his current condition. Police saw him in his vehicle this morning in a bad way. We do not know how bad."

Defence advocate Mr Templeton stated at the verdict he also had limited details about Drazkowski.

He said: "We have come up against a barrier of data protection.

"The police will not give information to those instructing me on the rules about sharing information.

"I have no further information other than he is in hospital being treated."