Muhammad Sheikhi, a 23-year-old Syrian refugee, has been sentenced to four years in prison for sexually assaulting two women in Falkirk within an hour. The sentence was handed down at Stirling Sheriff Court on Monday, following a guilty verdict at his trial in May.
Predatory assaults
Sheriff Keith O'Mahony described the assaults as "deliberate and predatory" and stated he was imposing a sentence at the upper limit of his sentencing powers. Sheikhi was also added to the Sex Offenders' Register indefinitely and given a restraining order preventing him from contacting or approaching the victims for a decade.
The attacks occurred in the early hours of Sunday, November 30, near the Hotel Cladhan where Sheikhi was residing. He first targeted a woman at a railway bridge on Kerse Lane, where he hugged her, repeatedly kissed her on the face and mouth, and put his hands under her skirt. Less than an hour later, he sexually assaulted a second woman in Kerse Lane and the nearby Bellsmeadow skate park, pinning her against a tree before putting his hands under her clothing.
Victims and defense
Both victims were in their early 20s and had been walking home alone after nights out in the town centre. Sheikhi, who arrived in the UK by boat, denied the charges and told police he had just been "roaming around" as he had no one to socialise with at his hotel.
His defense lawyer, Paul Keenan, said his client is a Syrian refugee who had escaped the "terror of Isis" and continues to assert his innocence. However, after a four-day trial at Stirling Sheriff Court in May, the jury found him guilty of both charges following three hours of deliberation. Prosecutor Jamie Hilland described Sheikhi's behaviour towards the two women as "predatory" at the time.
