Syrian refugee sexually assaulted two women within minutes of each other in Falkirk

A Syrian refugee is facing a jail term after being found guilty of sexually assaulting two women within minutes of each other.

Muhammad Sheikhi, labelled “predatory” by prosecutors, “terrified” and “violated” his young victims after they left different nightclubs in Falkirk, Stirlingshire, in the early hours of the morning, a court heard.

Syrian refugee Sheikhi, 33, denied having sexual contact with the women, telling police: “Only animals would do that publicly.”

As well as the women who were sexually assaulted, a third woman was seen on CCTV being approached by Sheikhi, but went on her way.

The incidents, on November 30, 2025, came only hours after major pro and anti-immigration demonstrations were held around Falkirk’s Cladhan Hotel.

Sheikhi – who arrived in Britain by boat claiming he’d faced violence in Syria, been shot four times, and was part of an anti-terror coalition in the country – was being accommodated in the Cladhan by the Home Office.

He sexually assaulted his first victim, aged 22, under a railway bridge as she walked back from Falkirk’s Maniqui nightclub, which she’d left at 2.10am.

He then attacked his second victim, aged 21, in the town’s Bellsmeadow skate park as she walked to a friend’s house from the town’s XOXO nightspot, which she’d left at 2.30am.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard Sheikhi had been “roaming round” the town centre for hours.

He was arrested in his room at the Cladhan at 6.25am the same morning.

Though an Arabic interpreter, Sheikhi, who speaks almost no English, told police he had been on the streets because “I am just a young man like everybody else who wants to have a good time.”

A jury of 12 women and three men found him guilty of both sex assaults. They deleted an allegation that had applied to the skatepark incident only, that the sexual assault was carried out with intent to rape.

After a four-day trial at Stirling Sheriff Court, they took just three hours to return their majority verdicts.

Sheikhi, known as “Jan”, a barber in Syria, had pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Sheriff Keith O’Mahony deferred sentence until June 29 for background reports and continued his remand in custody.

He told him: “You have been convicted of two very serious charges. As far as this court is concerned you have no previous convictions, therefore as a matter of law I am required to obtain reports before sentencing you.”

Advocate Paul Keenan, defending, reserved mitigation.

Sheikhi showed no emotion but clutched at a tissue as the verdicts were announced and he was handcuffed to a guard and led to the cells

Jurors heard Sheikhi’s first victim had tried to placate him before the attack, which left her so scared she could “hardly talk and breathe”.

She said was walking alone along Kerse Lane, not far from the Cladhan, when she heard footsteps behind. She sped up, but so did Sheikhi, putting his phone in front of her indicating a translation app and saying “Arabic, Arabic”.

Sheikhi told her through the app that he was staying at the Cladhan.

The woman said: “It’s a hotel that is used for asylum seekers. There’s a lot of stigma about that hotel.”

Using Google, she told him “I’ve got nothing wrong with yous being here.”

She told the jury: “I was scared, I wanted to say something nice so nothing would happen.”

But Sheikhi leant in and hugged her, then kissed her on her left cheek, right cheek and lips, then put his hand up her dress.

She said: “I jumped back and said ‘No’.

“He got under my skirt and grabbed my bum cheek.

“I had tights on, luckily.”

She said Sheikhi wouldn’t let her leave until she accepted him on Snapchat.

As she walked away fast, he shouted down the street, “I love you, I love you”, later messaging her emojis with love hearts for eyes, adding, “I love you… I’m ready to help with anything.”

Asked by the prosecution “How did you feel?, the woman replied: “Really scared, a bit violated.”

Shortly afterwards, targeting his second victim, Sheikhi approached as she was also walking alone along Kerse Lane, and began “being weird” about her shoes.

She said he “shoved his phone in my face saying ‘Snapchat’”, and took her shoes off, putting his own on her instead.

She said: “I was wearing strappy high heels. He had to unbuckle them, then unstrap them from round my ankle.

“He actually broke my shoes.”

He caught up with her again as she took a short cut across the skatepark. She said: “He grabbed me by the shoulder to try and turn me round to face him, then pushed me up against a tree”.

She said he then “stuck his hand up my skirt and under my dress” – leaving her “terrified”.

She said: “I was just shouting at him to stop and I was crying.”

She made her way to a friend’s nearby and “pounded” on his door, but her friend, 19, couldn’t find his keys and held herhand through the letterbox while phoning her mother to collect her.

All the time Sheikhi stayed a little way off, watching, holding her shoes.

A doorbell camera showed her crouching, obviously distressed, saying to Sheikhi weepingly, “Please can I have my shoes back? I just want to go home, please stop touching me, please leave me alone.”

Eventually, she sat on the pavement.

Sheikhi sat next to her and again put his own socks and shoes on her.

She said: “I kept taking them off because I thought that was actually disgusting and I think he put them on me twice.

“I kept shouting at him and crying.”

She said Sheikhi, through a translate app, kept saying something about “going back to his”.

Then her mother drove up.

The woman said when that happened, “I’ve never seen anyone move so fast. He literally sprinted back towards the park.”

After his arrest, Sheikhi claimed he had just been trying to help her because her shoes were broken.

He said: “She was heavily intoxicated – I could have taken advantage of her, but I never did.”

He told investigating officer DC John Thomson he had never sought sexual gratification from either of the women or had any sexual contact with them.

He said: “If anybody were to do something like that, you’d choose a private place, not like on the street.

“Only animals would do that publicly.”

He added: “When I was walking whenever I see someone in need of help, I was helping.”

Prosecutor Jamie Hillend labelled Sheikhi “predatory”, pointing to “compelling similarities” between his two crimes.