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A 24-year-old man has been sentenced after approaching several young girls to touch and sniff their feet.
Alexander Scott-Bowen, of Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Friday after pleading guilty to seven counts of sexual assault against seven victims.
He was sentenced to 38 weeks in prison, but has been released after serving his custody period on remand this year. A 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order was also granted, and he has been added to the Sex Offenders‘ Register for the next decade.
Scott-Bowen would engage all of his victims in an innocuous conversation about their feet or shoes, often paying them compliments, before swiftly grabbing their foot and sniffing it, Avon and Somerset Police said.
Detective 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.”
Mr Coleman added: “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.”
The force launched an investigation in 2022 after receiving reports of three young girls being separately approached by a man in Yate who touched and sniffed their feet.
Police received two more reports of young girls being stopped in Kingswood in similar circumstances in March 2025, and another investigation led officers to identify Scott-Bowen as a suspect.
He was arrested, interviewed, and bailed while the force continued to carry out its enquiries and gather evidence.
His DNA was also obtained and had been found and matched to DNA on the shoelace of one of the victims in 2022.
Police then received further reports regarding two girls being approached in Cribbs Causeway on New Year’s Eve last year in a similar manner and a woman being approached in Stoke Gifford in January while Scott-Bowen was on bail.
He was re-arrested three days after these incidents and remanded into custody. During a forensic examination, material indicative of a foot fetish was located on his phone, police said.
Mr Coleman added: “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.”