Case dropped against man accused of flashing and sex acts at asylum hotel window

Prosecutors have dropped a case against a resident of a hotel housing asylum seekers who was accused of flashing, making obscene gestures and performing sex acts at a window.

Said Ageed, 23, had been due to face trial at Falkirk Sheriff Court on Friday for the alleged offences at the Cladhan Hotel. However, it has now been confirmed that the trial will not proceed.

A Crown Office spokesman said this followed “full and careful consideration of the facts and circumstances”.

A Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service spokesperson said: “It is the duty of the Crown to keep cases under review, and following full and careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, including the available admissible evidence, it was decided that there should be no further criminal proceedings at this time.

“The Crown reserves the right to proceed in the future should further evidence become available.”

Ageed, who is understood to be Kurdish, had faced charges of intentionally, and on a number of occasions, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of two local civilians – a man and a woman – by masturbating while looking out at them through a hotel window.

The acts were alleged to have taken place at the Hotel Cladhan in Falkirk between June 1 and August 16.

The hotel, on the town’s Kemper Avenue, had been the scene of repeated protests involving hundreds of pro and anti-migration demonstrators.

On one occasion, a brick was thrown through a window of the hotel.

Ageed was also accused of making an obscene gesture at the same two people on August 16 and intentionally exposing his genitals to them in a sexual manner with the intention that they should see them.

Ageed, whose address was given as the Hotel Cladhan, appeared in court in September and denied both charges.

The proceedings were interpreted into Kurdish for him.

The court heard that CCTV from within the hotel showed Ageed “going in and out of a room that has been identified”, but was “not likely to be determinative” in the case.

A number of protests were held outside hotels housing asylum seekers in Perth and Aberdeenshire, as well as Falkirk, during the summer.

The Cladhan in Falkirk and the Radisson Blu in Perth became asylum seeker hotels in August 2022.