A migrant hotel resident who sexually assaulted two women in Falkirk in the space of little over an hour has been jailed for four years.
Muhammad Sheikhi, 23, targeted his victims after they left different nightclubs in the early hours of a Sunday morning last November.
He was later arrested in his room in the Cladhan Hotel, which has been the scene of repeated rival protests involving pro and anti-immigration demonstrators.
Sheriff Keith O'Mahony called the assaults "deliberate and predatory".
The sheriff said that considering the seriousness of the crimes, he was imposing a sentence at the upper end of his sentencing powers.
Sheikhi was also placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely and ordered not to contact or approach the victims for a period of 10 years.
Paul Keenan, defending Sheikhi, said his client is a Syrian refugee who had fled the "terror of Isis" and that he maintains his innocence.
The 23-year-old carried out both attacks in the early hours of 30 November, close to the hotel where he had been staying.
He targeted the first woman at a railway bridge on Kerse Lane, where he hugged her, repeatedly kissed her on the face and mouth, and put his hands under her skirt.
He then sexually assaulted a second woman in Kerse Lane and the nearby Bellsmeadow skate park, where he pinned her against a tree before putting his hands under her clothing.
Both of his victims were in their early 20s and both had been walking home alone after nights out in the town centre.
Sheikhi, who came to the UK by boat, had denied the charges and told police he had just been "roaming around" as he did not have anyone to socialise with in his hotel.
However, following a four-day trial and three hours of deliberation at Stirling Sheriff Court in May, a jury found him guilty of both charges.
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