A MAN who stalked two teenagers as they walked home from school told police he wanted to marry them.

In a trial at Bolton Magistrates Court the girls, aged 14 and 15, told how stranger Mohammed Ali repeatedly drove up and down Rupert Street, Bolton, revving his engine as he passed them to gain their attention.

Then, on March 4, the girls, who gave evidence from behind a screen, said 31-year-old Ali parked his car, got out and followed them, insisting they take a piece of paper with his phone number on it.

"I felt nervous and kind of creeped out," the older girl said, adding that she and her friend were dressed in school uniform and wearing hijabs at the time.

"We asked him to leave. He didn't react. He just kept offering the paper." she said.

But five days later the girls spotted his car again and he was waiting for them after they called at a chip shop on their way home from school.

They told how they tried to walk quickly past his car, but he got out of the vehicle and followed them.

The girls said he asked why they had not called him and the older teenager said he did not leave them alone, even when they pointed out they were high school pupils.

A video of the encounter, filmed by the younger girl, was was played in court.

"In the end he only backed off when I threatened to call the police," said the older girl.

Both teenagers described his behaviour as making them "scared."

Ali was arrested after one of the girls told her mother what had happened.

"He accepted approaching the complainants and giving them a note, but he explained that he believed them to be 18 or 19 and that he wanted to marry them," said Joanne Cronshaw, prosecuting.

Ali, of South Street, Bolton, who gave evidence in court with the aid of an interpreter, denied stalking the teenagers, although he did admit talking to them.

Magistrates were told that at the time he was approaching the girls Ali was on bail for harassing a work colleague - a charge he pleaded guilty to on March 27 and is due to be sentenced for at Bolton Crown Court later this month.

Magistrates found Ali guilty of stalking the two schoolgirls and adjourned his sentence until April 30.