Migrant hotel resident guilty of sexual assaults on two women

A migrant hotel resident has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two women in the Falkirk in the space of little over an hour.

Muhammad Sheikhi, 33, targeted his victims after they left different nightclubs in the early hours of a Sunday morning last November.

He was later arrested in his room in the Cladhan Hotel, which has been the scene of repeated rival protests involving pro and anti-immigration demonstrators.

Sheikhi was placed on the sex offenders register ahead of sentencing on 29 June and remanded in custody.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard that he targeted the first woman at a railway bridge on Kerse Lane in Falkirk, where he hugged her, repeatedly kissed her on the face and mouth, and put his hands under her skirt.

He then sexually assaulted a second woman in Kerse Lane and the nearby Bellsmeadow skatepark, where he pinned her against a tree before putting his hands under her clothing.

Both of his victims were in their early-20s.

Sheikhi, who came to the UK by boat and was being accommodated at the Cladhan Hotel by the Home Office, had denied the charges and told police he had just been "roaming around" as he did not have anyone to socialise with in his hotel.

He denied having sexual contact with the women, telling police: "Only animals would do that publicly."

As well as the women who were sexually assaulted, a third woman was seen on CCTV being approached by Sheikhi, but walked away.

A jury of 12 women and three men found him guilty of both sexual assaults following a four-day trial.

They deleted an allegation - that had applied to the skatepark incident only - that the sexual assault was carried out with intent to rape.

Though an Arabic interpreter, Sheikhi told police he had been on the streets because "I am just a young man like everybody else who wants to have a good time."

Advocate Paul Keenan, defending, reserved mitigation until the sentencing hearing.

In his closing speech to the jury, prosecutor Jamie Hilland said Sheikhi had acted in a "predatory" manner towards the two women.

Hilland said: "On their evidence, the accused approached both women, he's tried to give them his phone. He tried to get them to add him on Snapchat.

"In both cases he's tried to corner the complainer and he then sexually assaulted both of them."

The prosecutor said Sheikhi's actions had left both women "distressed", highlighting a phone call one of them had made to her father following the assault.

"(Her father) said she could hardly talk, she could hardly breathe. It was the point where he was struggling to understand her," Hilland said.

"She told him she had been sexually assaulted at the railway bridge by a man who put his hand under her skirt and tried to kiss her."

In his closing speech, Keenan had urged the jury to acquit his client of both charges, saying the evidence against him was "flawed throughout".