A HIGH-RISK offender who carried out sex attacks on two West Fife schoolgirls shortly after his release from jail was given an indefinite prison sentence today (Friday).

Michael Harlow bought alcohol for underage girls from a store in Cowdenbeath before indecently assaulting a 14-year-old in the town in defiance of a court order banning him from contacting children.

Less than a fortnight later, he struck again in Dunfermline when he grabbed a 15-year-old schoolgirl and lifted her up and started taking her down an alley.

The teenager told the High Court in Edinburgh: "I just kept screaming and kicking him."

She was telling him to let her go but Harlow refused and told her she was beautiful and tried to kiss her but she managed to break free.

Unemployed Harlow had denied committing the sexual assaults at Chapel Street, in Cowdenbeath, on February 20 last year, and at Chapel Street, in Dunfermline, on March 2, but was earlier found guilty of the offences by a jury.

He then pleaded guilty to two offences under protection of children legislation for breaching a Risk of Sexual Harm Order imposed by a sheriff in 2014 which prohibited him having contact or communication with any child under the age of 16.

Harlow had been freed from Perth prison in December 2016 after being imprisoned for an earlier breach of such an order.

The court heard that Harlow, 26, has five convictions for breaching the notification requirements of the sex offenders' register and three for breaching sexual harm orders.

A judge imposed an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR) on Harlow and told him: "That constitutes a sentence of imprisonment for an indefinite period."

Lord Uist said an experienced psychiatrist who produced a risk assessment report on Harlow concluded that he had "an enduring propensity to seriously endanger the public".

He pointed out that a forensic psychologist who was asked to produce a report for the defence had assessed him as being "a high risk to the safety of the public at large on being at liberty".

The judge told Harlow he would fix a minimum period of 30 months that he must serve in jail before he becomes eligible to apply for release on parole.

Lord Uist said: "You must not assume you will be released at the end of that period. You will be released only when it is considered no longer necessary for the protection of the public that you continue to be confined in prison."

Harlow was told that he would be on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

Harlow, who has been jailed 14 times, previously told a social worker that he would never comply with a sex offences prevention order because he did not believe it was necessary.

Advocate depute Jim Keegan QC earlier told the court that as a younger teenager, Harlow was kept in secure accommodation and released at the age of 18.

The prosecutor said: "There is a report that discloses a disturbing forensic history that commences when the accused was about 12 years of age. Much of that history reveals inappropriate sexual behaviour."

Before the first sexual assault, the victim had met up with others and drink had been consumed. They made their way to a store in Cowdenbeath looking for someone to buy alcohol for them. Harlow was approached and agreed to buy it.

He asked the girls details of their names, where they lived and their ages and was told they were all aged between 13 and 15.

Mr Keegan said: "It must have been obvious to him that they were all young teenagers."

Harlow walked around with the girls until they split up to go their separate ways home. He then targeted one of the girls and began touching her body and kissing her on the face, neck and chest.

Before the second assault, Harlow had approached the victim, who was with a friend, at Dunfermline bus station. He followed them onto a bus and claimed he worked as a bouncer.

The victim told him she was 15 and her friend said she was 14. He repeatedly asked the older girl her name and phone number. She avoided telling him her name but thought her friend might have.

He followed the older girl off the bus and later sent her a friend request on Facebook and Snapchat. The following day, she received numerous messages from him but told him that as she was at school, she could not speak to him.

She later met up with friends and Harlow joined them. He "touched up" her companions and made them feel uncomfortable before grabbing the victim and taking her down an alley before she managed to break free and return to her friends.

Defence solicitor advocate Gordon Martin said Harlow had "a somewhat difficult childhood" but accepted that he met the risk criteria for the imposition of an OLR.