WARNING, DISRTRESSING CONTENT: Muhammad Sheikhi was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women in Falkirk and sentenced to four years at Stirling Sheriff Court
A “predatory” refugee who sexually assaulted two women within an hour of each other as they were on the way home from nights out in Falkirk has been handed a four-year prison sentence.
Muhammad Sheikhi received his sentence at Stirling Sheriff Court on Monday, following a guilty verdict at his trial in May. Sheriff Keith O’Mahony described the assaults as “deliberate and predatory”.
Given the severity of the crimes, the sheriff 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.
Paul Keenan, defending Sheikhi, said his client is a Syrian refugee who had escaped the “terror of Isis” and continues to assert his innocence.
The 23-year-old committed both attacks in the early hours of Sunday November 30, near the Hotel Cladhan where he 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.
Within less than an hour later he then 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.
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.
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.
Sheikhi appeared in court on Monday in a black T-shirt and jeans, accompanied by a translator. He was visibly emotional when the sentence was imposed and as he left the courtroom.
The four-year sentence imposed will be backdated to December 2025 when Sheikhi was first remanded.
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