Man sentenced for sniffing young girls' feet

A 24-year-old man who caused "considerable distress" to young girls by grabbing their feet and sniffing them has been sentenced.

Alexander Scott-Bowen, of Kingswood, Bristol, approached girls in the South Gloucestershire area between 2022 and 2025, paying them compliments before grabbing and sniffing their feet.

Police said Scott-Bowen, who pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual assault, was linked to the assaults after his DNA was found on the shoelaces of one of the victims.

He was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court to 38 weeks in prison but has been released because he has been on remand since January and the custody period has been served.

Scott-Bowen was also made the subject of a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and has been added to the Sex Offenders' Register for the next 10 years.

Avon and Somerset Police launched an investigation in 2022 following reports of a man confronting three young girls in Yate, South Gloucestershire, and sniffing and touching their feet.

They released an e-fit image in a bid to identify the suspect but there was not enough evidence to link anyone to the assaults, police said.

In March 2025, police received two more reports of young girls being stopped in Kingswood and Scott-Bowen was arrested.

Police said while Scott-Bowen was on police bail they received two further reports of girls being approached in Cribbs Causeway on New Year's Eve in 2025 and a woman being approached in Stoke Gifford on 21 January 2026.

Scott-Bowen was re-arrested three days later and charged with sexual assault against seven victims.

He was then remanded in custody.

Police seized his mobile phone on which they found material that indicated a foot fetish.

"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," said Det Sgt Mike Coleman of Avon and Somerset Police.

He said the attacks caused "considerable distress" to the victims.

"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," Det Sgt Coleman said.

"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."

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