Asylum seeker who sexually assaulted two women on trains jailed

An Afghan asylum seeker who sexually assaulted two different women on trains within a week has been jailed for ten months.

Mohammed Mirzai, 24, who touched both women on their upper thighs during journeys last year, was told by a sheriff he was a high-risk sexual offender.

The women were both passengers on the ScotRail 9.45pm service from Glasgow Queen Street Station to Edinburgh Waverley.

Prosecutor Bernadette Cuthbertson said the first incident occurred on March 14, 2025.

Mirzai’s first victim, a 42-year-old woman, got on at Glasgow, sat down, put her headphones on, and began to browse her phone. A few stops later, Mirzai entered her carriage, sat down next to her, and asked her if she had a charger.

Ms Cuthbertson said: “She said she didn’t and went back to scrolling. She then felt movement on her lap, moved her coat, and saw Mr Mirzai had his hand on her upper thigh.”

She jumped up and said loudly, to get the attention of other passengers, “Why are you touching me?”

Mirzai said he wasn’t, and she repeated, “Yes you were touching me.”

Other passengers had seen what was going on, and one took a photo of Mirzai.

The woman and another witness contacted British Transport Police at the next stop, and the photo was passed to the police and later circulated.

Eight days later, on March 22, Mirzai targeted his second victim, a 31-year-old woman, on the same 9.45pm service.

Ms Cuthbertson said Mirzai sat down next to the woman and asked her if she had a phone charger. In this case, the woman did not engage Mirzai in conversation at all, but just after the train had left Falkirk High Station, she felt something on her lap, looked down, and saw Mirzai’s hand on her thigh.

The woman got off at Polmont and didn’t report the incident at the time, but came forward after seeing Mirzai’s photo being circulated by police in the wake of the first attack.

He was identified from the picture and traced at the Radisson Blu hotel, Perth, better known as the Station Hotel, Perth, which was being used by the Home Office to house asylum seekers.

He pleaded guilty to both offences at Falkirk Sheriff Court last month and appeared again on Thursday for sentence.

Solicitor Gordon Addison, defending, asked the court to take into account his “apparent immaturity”.

The court heard Mirzai was an asylum seeker, subject to oversight by the Home Office.

Imposing the ten-month jail term, Sheriff Maryam Labaki told Mirzai: “On two separate occasions, you sexually assaulted two women who were travelling alone on a train. While on a train, they should have felt safe, and been safe.

“This was an escalating pattern of sexual offending, and you are assessed as being high risk for further sexual offending.

“I am satisfied there is no alternative to a custodial sentence.”

Mirzai showed no emotion as the proceedings were translated for him into Dari, an Afghan language, and he was led by guards down to the cells.

The sentence was backdated to March 2, when he tendered his guilty pleas.

He was placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.

It comes as Mirzai was sentenced last week at Perth Sheriff Court to a 30-week jail term for voyeurism.

Mirzai crawled along the floor at Perth Leisure Pool to look up at a naked swimmer in a locked cubicle.

He was caught when the 28-year-old woman looked down and saw him staring back up at her.

She reported the matter to staff at Perth Leisure Pool and later advised police.

That offence was committed on October 25, 2025, while Mirzai was already on bail for the train attacks.

The Perth sentence was backdated and had therefore expired before the imposition of the ten-month sentence at Falkirk.