Prosecutors have demanded a three-year jail sentence against a sex attacker accused of assaulting six women in the street in less than a year.

The 41-year-old man from Utrecht allegedly targeted his victims while they were cycling or locking their bikes. The prosecution service said he had been sentenced for similar incidents in 2000 and received compulsory psychiatric treatment (tbs) which ended in 2010.

‘Things appear to have gone well for several years, but his life changed in October 2015,’ the prosecution service said in a statement. ‘He lost his job and his girlfriend and ended up in what experts call his ‘offending situation’.

‘In the absence of stability, a social life and financial support the tensions, sense of failure and alcohol use increased and he developed an obsessive urge to make contact with women. When that failed he became angry and committed these offences.’

The court has been asked to impose another compulsory treatment order in addition to the prison sentence.