A sex attacker faces jail after pouncing on a young mum in broad daylight as she walked her daughter home from nursery school.
Hamilton Sheriff Court heard that John Welsh wrestled his victim to the ground and ripped off her underwear before fleeing.
A witness who went to help the traumatised woman said she was "screaming her head off".
Welsh, 25, denied sexual assault in Blackmoss Drive and Mansfield Road, Bellshill, but a jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict.
The woman told the court she was walking with her daughter when she was grabbed from behind and fell to the ground.
Her attacker put his hand up her skirt and she felt her pants being torn off.
The woman, aged 23 at the time, suffered bruising to her arm and a grazed hip during the attack in September 2020.
She picked out Welsh from a police photo line-up, though she had earlier identified another man as her attacker.
Welsh's DNA was found on her underwear.
One witness said he spotted a man acting strangely outside a martial arts centre and watched him follow the same path as the woman had taken with her child.
Welsh was seen on CCTV leaving a flat in nearby Liberty Road, Bellshill, and returning to it shortly after the assault.
Welsh, of Pickerstonhill, Newarthill, claimed he was the victim of mistaken identity.
After the verdict Sheriff Martin Jones placed him on the sex offenders' register and deferred sentence until next month for background reports and a risk assessment.
The sheriff warned him: "This is an extremely serious matter and custody is at the forefront of the court's mind."
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