Man performed sex act to girls in Bournemouth toilet block

Ahmed Elbasry, 39, was “smiling and smirking” as he touched himself with his ‘swimming trunks’ halfway down his thighs in the toilets near Boscombe Pier.

The girls, aged between 11 and 13, were so terrified that they locked themselves in cubicles and screamed for help.

Elbasry then tried to put his head under one of the cubicles - occupied by two of the girls – before putting his arm under and trying to grab at them.

The defendant was confronted by one of his victim's mothers and stopped from leaving until the police arrived.

In victim statements shared in court, the girls described feeling “unsafe” and “scared” and recalled hearing “moaning noises” and “the sound of a zipper”.

One of the victims, who was 13 at the time, said: “I still think about it and relive it over and over.

“Still to this day, I feel vulnerable. I am scared that the same thing will happen again.”

Elbasry, who works at a café in Southbourne, was charged with three counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

A jury found him guilty following a trial at Bournemouth Crown Court.

He was sentenced on Thursday, January 4.

Ahmed Elbasry, 39, leaving Bournemouth Crown Court after sentencing (Image: NQ)

Prosecuting, Tom Wright said the girls had been at the beach with family on May 8, 2022, and before heading home, went into the seafront toilets off Undercliff Drive.

They were the only people in the women’s bathroom when they saw the defendant in the corridor, the court heard.

Mr Wright said there had been a “degree of pre-planning” on Elbasry’s behalf, noting he had been “looking for victims” in the toilet and “seized his opportunity to do what he did” when he saw the girls.

Mitigating, Nick Cotter said he didn’t believe the offence was pre-planned and was due to his client’s mental health.

He said that Elbasry had lost his job through the pandemic, leading to financial difficulties, which caused his mental health to deteriorate.

Mr Cotter told the court: “He has a history of difficulties that have started since Covid.

“There had been a crescendo in his mental health on May 8.

“He has had high levels of support since then. Effectively, he is a gentleman returning to the man he used to be prior to 2021.”

The toilet block at Boscombe beach near the pier (Image: NQ)

The court also heard how Elbasry had been intoxicated at the time of the offence and had not been taking medication prescribed for his mental health.

Judge William Mousley KC said: “On May 8 you exposed yourself and masturbated in the presence and in the direction of two teenage girls and one young girl.

“They were unsurprisingly very scared by your behaviour.

“When you approached the girls, they were concerned something more was going to happen.

“I’ve heard victim personal statements by two of the girls, both describing their upset and the anxiety they suffered for a period of time after this incident."

Judge Mousley acknowledged that Elbasry had no previous convictions, and said he was "satisfied" that the defendant's offending was linked to his mental disorder. 

Elbasry, of Marina Close in Bournemouth, was given an 18-month jail sentence suspended for two years.

He was also made subject to a ten-year sexual harm prevention order.