A refugee who sexually assaulted two women in the Scottish town of Falkirk has been sentenced to four years in prison. Muhammad Sheikhi, 33, was found guilty by a jury in May of attacking the women in the early hours of November 30 last year. He was also placed on the sex offenders register for life and issued a ten-year non-harassment order.
Sheikhi, a Syrian barber who arrived in the UK via a small boat, was accommodated in Falkirk by the Home Office. The court heard he had been "roaming round" the town center for hours before the assaults. He sexually assaulted his first victim, aged 22, under a railway bridge, and his second victim, aged 21, in Bellsmeadow skatepark. CCTV footage showed him approaching a third woman who was not attacked.
During his arrest, Sheikhi 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." He denied any sexual contact, stating, "Only animals would do that publicly."
Advocate Paul Keenan, representing Sheikhi, stated that his client had fled Syria seeking a safer life after experiencing violence and losing family members to terrorism. He claimed Sheikhi had been shot six times and was part of an anti-terror coalition in his home country, and had been forced to work in construction from a young age.
Sheriff Keith O’Mahony, in sentencing, described the assaults as "deliberate, predatory sexual assaults committed against strangers who had every right to walk home in safety." The sheriff added that Sheikhi "treated these women as though their autonomy, dignity, and bodily integrity counted for nothing," causing "fear, humiliation and had the potential to cause lasting psychological harm."
The father of one victim blamed the UK government and border security for the incidents, stating that Sheikhi should not have been in the country. The attacks occurred in a town that had recently seen pro and anti-immigration demonstrations, some of which were held near the hotel where Sheikhi was housed. Previous convictions of asylum seekers in the area had also inflamed tensions.