Security guard Khalid Alsrooji raped and sexually assaulted women as they slept in Edinburgh

A former Scottish Government security guard who carried out predatory sex attacks on two vulnerable young women has been jailed for eight years.

Khalid Alsrooji, 35, assaulted his victims when they were asleep at flats in Edinburgh and subjected one of them to a rape ordeal.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: “It is clear a custodial sentence is the necessary and inevitable consequence of these offences.”

Lord Weir said Alsrooji had taken advantage of his victims when they were in vulnerable circumstances.

The judge told him: “You were found guilty after trial of two serious charges involving different complainers on different occasions, in circumstances which disclosed common features.”

Lord Weir said that on both occasions the women were not previously known to Alsrooji.

Defence solicitor advocate Krista Johnston said that Sudanese-born Alsrooji continued to maintain his innocence over the sex crimes, but was assessed as posing a medium risk of further offending.

The court heard that Alsrooji, formerly of Robertson Gait, Edinburgh, who worked as a club doorman as well as a security guard, met victims on nights out and at after-parties. Both young women were asleep when he began his assaults on them.

He targeted his first victim in September 2017 at a flat where she fell asleep after visiting the Opal Lounge venue. She woke to find him in bed with her and a friend and put herself in a position between him and the other woman.

Alsrooji struggled with the woman and ripped her trousers during the sex attack and she told her friend: “He’s tried to rape us.”

He attacked his second victim in August 2019, who woke up in a stranger’s flat to find her lower clothing had been removed and Alsrooji raping her.

Traces of drugs were later found in her blood although she said she had not taken any.

The woman said she did not remember leaving a city venue, adding: “My next memory is waking up on a couch facing the wall in an unknown flat.”

She said she told her attacker: “No, stop.” The woman told the court: “I didn’t have enough energy to move or do anything about it. I couldn’t move or open my eyes.”

The attack was reported to police after the woman went to hospital following the assault.

Alsrooji had denied the sex offences but was found guilty of raping the second woman and sexually assaulting the first victim with intent to rape her.

Ms Johnston said that Alsrooji had suffered from ‘adverse childhood experiences’ and came to the UK at the age of 15.

She said: “He is a man with a very good work history. He has always worked in this country to support himself and his family.”

The defence lawyer said the father-of-one had been exposed to a very different culture, where alcohol was a feature, when he came to Britain. She added: “He managed alcohol poorly.”

Alsrooji was told that he would be placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely following his sentencing.