A MAN who accosted young girls and sniffed their feet in Yate and Chipping Sodbury has been given a jail sentence for sexual assault.
Alexander Scott-Bowen, aged 24, approached three young girls in 2022.
Avon & Somerset police said Scott-Bowen (pictured above) would start talking to his victims about their feet or shoes, often paying them compliments, before “swiftly grabbing their foot and sniffing it”.
Police made a public appeal and issued an ‘e-fit’ picture of the offender.
They identified some possible suspects but said there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone in connection with the incidents, which happened in Slimbridge Close and Abbotswood in Yate, and Robin Way, Chipping Sodbury, and involved girls aged between 10 and 15.
In March last year police received two more reports of young girls being stopped in similar circumstances, in Kingswood.
A new investigation was launched and Scott-Bowen was identified as a suspect, arrested and released on bail.
DNA link
During their investigation police discovered that Scott-Bowen was living in the Yate area at the time of the 2022 incidents and still had some distinctive clothes that matched a description given by one of the victims.
They also took a DNA sample which matched some that was recovered from the shoelace of one of his 2022 victims’ trainers.
By last year Scott-Bowen had moved to Kingswood and one of his victims there positively identified him as their attacker; he was also captured on doorbell footage walking down a street alongside the victim.
While Scott-Bowen was on bail, police received two further reports of similar incidents, involving girls being approached in Cribbs Causeway on New Year’s Eve last year and a woman being accosted in Stoke Gifford this January.
He was re-arrested three days after the last incident, charged with seven counts of sexual assault and remanded in custody.
‘Foot fetish’ material on phone
Scott-Bowen’s mobile phone was seized.
A police spokesperson said: “During a forensic examination, material indicative of a foot fetish was located on his phone.”
Scott-Bowen pleaded guilty to all seven charges in July.
At Bristol Crown Court on Friday he was sentenced to 38 weeks in prison – but was released as he has been in custody on remand since January.
He was also made subject to a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and added to the Sex Offenders’ Register for the next 10 years.
Attacks caused ‘considerable distress’
Detective sergeant Mike Coleman said: “These attacks caused considerable distress to the victims and the wider community, and we are pleased Scott-Bowen has been sentenced for these crimes.
“Throughout this investigation, we were clear in our mindset to view these incidents for what they really were – a series of sexual attacks against predominantly young girls.
“Scott-Bowen carried out his offending over a long period of time and was not even deterred by being arrested and released with bail conditions, as he went on to commit further offences.
“In pleading guilty in the face of the substantial evidence presented, he has accepted that his motives for all these attacks was his own sexual gratification.
“We want to thank and recognise the brave victims who came forward, especially those from the 2022 incident who all positively re-engage when we contact them to inform them their cases were being re-opened.”