Case of Bournemouth sex offender not referred to Court of Appeal

The sentence of 39-year-old Ahmed Elbasry was referred to the Attorney General’s Office back in January.

Elbasry was spared jail following an incident in the ladies’ toilet block near Boscombe Pier in May 2022.

He was “smiling and smirking” as he touched himself with his ‘swimming trunks’ halfway down his thighs in front of three girls, aged between 11 and 13, a court heard.

The girls 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.

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

Elbasry, of Marina Close in Bournemouth, was charged with three counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

He was found guilty by a jury at Bournemouth Crown Court and was sentenced on January 4.

He was handed an 18-month jail sentence suspended for two years, and made subject to a ten-year sexual harm prevention order.

On January 18, Attorney General’s Office (AGO) confirmed it had received a referral in relation to the case, and said it was under consideration.

However, in an update given this week, AGO said the case was not referred to the Court of Appeal.

A spokesperson for AGO said: “The Solicitor General concluded that this case could not be properly referred to the Court of Appeal.

“A referral under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.

"The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met in this case.”