A taxi driver has been caged after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two "very drunk" teenagers in the back of his cab.
John Simpson, 63, has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life after he preyed on the men after picking them up late at night and driving them to secluded areas to attack them.
One man, then 18, fell asleep in the taxi and woke up at a deserted business park in Edinburgh to find Simpson performing a sex act on him.
The victim managed to fight his attacker off before escaping the vehicle but he suffered cuts and scrapes to his penis during the sex assault.
Simpson offered the second 18-year-old man oral sex in payment for the £36 fare after he was taken to a back street in East Lothian.
The pervert driver, from Prestonpans in East Lothian, then jumped in the back of the cab and forced himself on the "terrified" man during the 2am assault in April 2019.
Simpson denied the charges but was found guilty of both attacks, and a separate offence of making sexual comments to a third male victim, by a jury at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.
He returned to the dock on Monday where Advocate Kenneth Cloggie, defending, said his client continues to deny the offences and "believes he was wrongly convicted".
Mr Cloggie told the court following his conviction Simpson, a taxi driver for 30 years, and his family were forced to flee their home after local residents protested outside the property.
He said windows at Simpson's home were smashed during the protests forcing the family to leave.
In sentencing, Sheriff Alistair Noble said: "In this case custody cannot be avoided given to the gravity of the offences which you have been convicted.
"You took advantage of two passengers, lone males in your taxi, who were grossly under the influence of alcohol and in the circumstances custody is unavoidable."
Simpson was caged for 30 months and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for an indefinite period.
The trial heard from the first victim, now 24, who described how he woke up to find Simpson performing oral sex on him in the back of the cab in July 2015.
The man told the jury after waking he was forced to fight the driver off and that he had suffered cuts and grazes to his penis during the assault.
The second victim, now 20, said he had been picked up by Simpson's taxi after a drunken night out with pals in Edinburgh on April 29, 2019.
The man said Simpson had made sexual comments to him during the journey before pulling into a deserted street in Cockenzie, East Lothian.
He told the court the driver "jumped into the back and said he would perform oral sex on me as payment".
The man said he was "very drunk" and "really scared" as Simpson sexually assaulted him but managed to fight the driver off before fleeing the taxi.
The man said he now suffers from "nightmares" due to the attack and is "struggling with my nerves".
Simpson was found guilty of sexually assaulting a man at Lochside Avenue, Edinburgh, on July 18, 2015.
He was also found guilty of making sexual comments and sexually assaulting a second man in Cockenzie, East Lothian, on April. 29, 2019.
The taxi driver was also found to have made sexual comments to a third man during the course of a taxi journey in Edinburgh on May 1, 2019.
