Edinburgh crime: Man pleads guilty to sexually assaulting 7 women in the city centre

A court has heard how a 63-year-old man tricked women into speaking to him before he sexually assaulted them.

A man targeted seven lone women while they were out walking their dogs and heading to work in Edinburgh city centre.

Mirza Mohammad Saeed sexually assaulted the women - including a 15-year-old girl - by grabbing their hands and attempting to kiss them on the mouth. Saeed, 63, used the ruse of stopping his victims to ask them to take a picture of him on his phone before he made a grab for them and leaning in to kiss them.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told on Wednesday that Saeed attacked the seven victims as they walked their dogs at the city’s Harrison Park and as they headed to work along the Union Canal pathway. Saeed, of the Capital’s Fountainbridge area, appeared in the dock to plead guilty to seven sexual assaults and had not guilty pleas to eight further similar offences accepted by the Crown.

Mirza Mohammad Saeed

Fiscal depute James Clark told the court Saeed assaulted three female dog walkers at Harrison Park between 8am and 9.45am on December 31, 2020. The fiscal said all three women were approached by Saeed and asked to take a photograph of him before he then asked for a picture of both of them together.

All the women denied the request for a photo together and Saeed proceeded to kiss them on the hand and attempt to kiss them on the mouth. Mr Clark told the court the women were left feeling “uncomfortable”, “upset” and “vulnerable” during the attacks.

The court was also told Saeed targeted lone women as they made their way along the city’s Union Canal pathway between 3pm and 4.45pm on February 20 last year. The fiscal said Saeed carried out similar behaviour to get the women to stop and talk to him before he attempted to kiss them.

The court also heard of the assault on the 15 year old girl on the same date as she walked her dog in the Craiglockhart area.

Again Saeed approached the girl and asked her to take his picture before he leaned in and tried to kiss her on the mouth. The girl fought the attacker off by pushing him to the chest and shouting “no, no” at him. The girl later said the attack left her feeling “alone and scared”.

Solicitor Mark Hutchison said his client was a father-of-six, has been in the UK for three years and had been “lonely and suffering from stress at the time of the offending”.

Mr Hutchison told the court Saeed plans to travel to Pakistan next week to attend his daughter’s wedding and will return to Scotland in late November. Sheriff Adrian Fraser agreed to release Saeed on bail and deferred sentence for the preparation of social work reports and a restriction of liberty assessment to December. The sheriff also placed Saeed on the sex offenders register for a term still to be determined.

Saeed pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting seven women at Harrison Park and the Union Canal Pathway, both Edinburgh, on December 31, 2020 and February 20 last year.