A SERIAL pest sexually assaulted a number of women on buses in Colchester.

Mohamed Alhamoud used busy public transport in the town to touch unsuspecting victims on seven occasions.

Each of the incidents took place between August 2015 and May last year.

Alhamoud admitted the charges at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday.

He denied a further eight counts which the Crown Prosecution Service will not pursue.

The 44-year-old, formerly of Howe Close, Colchester, will be sentenced next month, after his mental health is assessed by an expert.

Judge Rupert Overbury, told Alhamoud: “I am adjourning for a report by an expert to see if he will support a mental health treatment requirement.

“The combination of these offences which you have pleaded guilty to in my judgement crosses the custody threshold.

“However, plainly in view of your psychological history, I must consider an alternative to immediate custody.

“However, I am not promising anything.”

Alhamoud, a Syrian national who walks with a cane, communicated with the court through an interpreter and spoke only to respond to the charges against him and to confirm his name and where he is living.

One of his assaults took place on the number 61 First bus in May last year.

The victim was an 18-year-old girl who had boarded the bus in Osborne Street.

Alhamoud got on the bus at a stop in Head Street and sat beside her.

During the next minute, he repeatedly tried to touch her upper leg.

He only stopped when a member of the public intervened and the bus driver ordered him off the bus.

At the time, the victim told the Gazette: “I knew what was going on but I just didn’t know what to do.

“I didn’t want to give him the pleasure of knowing he was upsetting me.

“That’s until the woman behind me got up and said very loudly to me: ‘You need to move seats. I can see what he is trying to do.’”

Alhamoud’s case had been delayed after his representatives aimed to prove he was not fit to plea, having previously been tortured in Syria.

But an expert’s report found he was fit to plead.