A MAN who accosted young girls and sniffed their feet has been jailed for sexual assault.
Alexander Scott-Bowen, aged 24, approached three girls, aged between 10 and 15, in Yate and Chipping Sodbury in early 2022.
Avon & Somerset police said Scott-Bowen talked 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 March last year police received two more reports of girls being targeted in similar circumstances in Kingswood.
A new investigation was launched and Scott-Bowen was identified as a suspect, arrested and released on bail.
Officers 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 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. One of his victims there positively identified him as their attacker; he was also captured on doorbell footage walking down a street alongside her.
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 days later, charged with seven counts of sexual assault and remanded in custody, and his 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 in September he was sentenced to 38 weeks in prison – but was released because of time served in custody on remand.
Scott-Bowen was also made subject to a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and added to the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.
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.”