An asylum seeker is behind bars after sexually assaulting two women on two trains in just over a week.

Mohammed Mirzai, 24, thought to be from Afghanistan, touched both women on their upper thighs during journeys on ScotRail services last year.

The women were attacked as the trains were between Glasgow Queen Street and Polmont in Stirlingshire.

Mirzai targeted his first victim on March 14 last year and struck again on March 22.

He was arrested by British Transport Police.

At Falkirk Sheriff Court yesterday, Mirzai pleaded guilty to both offences.

His address was given on court papers as the Radisson Blu hotel, Perth, better known as the Station Hotel and used by the Home Office to house asylum seekers.

Solicitor Gary McIlravey, defending, said Mirzai was also facing sentence at Perth Sheriff Court for an ‘analogous’ offence committed on October 25 last year while he was on bail for the train crimes. 

The sex pest had committed voyeurism, crawling along the floor of Perth Leisure Pool to look up at a naked swimmer towelling herself in a locked cubicle.

Mr McIlravey confirmed Mirzai was an asylum seeker, subject to oversight by the Home Office.

Falkirk sheriff Maryam Labaki deferred sentence until March 26 to receive a criminal justice social work report on Mirzai. Mr McIlravey submitted that Mirzai’s bail in the Falkirk case should be continued but Sheriff Labaki revoked it.

Through an interpreter she told Mirzai: ‘These are serious charges. You’ll be remanded in custody because I am concerned about the risk of reoffending you pose and the safety of the public. 

'You committed a similar offence whilst on bail from Falkirk Sheriff Court.’

A narration of the facts in the Falkirk case will be given at the next hearing.

In the Perth case, the court heard Mirzai was caught when the 28-year-old woman looked down and saw him staring back up at her.

Mirzai admitted observing the woman doing a private act by lying on the floor of the cubicle adjacent to the locked one she was in to watch her.

The disabled woman had been at the pool for physiotherapy.