A sex pest who lured young women into the dark on the beach to harass them and touch them without consent has been jailed.
Mohamed Abdelsalam preyed on four young women in Brighton by asking to use a lighter for his cigarette before sexually assaulting them.
The 25-year-old tried to lure the women to dark areas of the beach between February 11 and February 25 last year.
His abuse included trying to bite one woman’s breast and kissing another woman on the neck before putting his hand inside her trousers in the final attack.
At Lewes Crown Court on Friday, Abdelsalam, of Preston Road, Brighton, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison with a further four on extended licence.
He had been found guilty by a jury at the same court in February of four counts of sexual assault and one count of assault by penetration.
One victim, a woman aged 21, was roller skating on the seafront but stopped for a cigarette which is when he sat next to her. They went on to the beach and the court heard the woman messaged friends so she could give an excuse to leave.
She described how Abdelsalam “pushed his face into her neck” and was “forceful”.
The woman cried as he put his hand inside her trousers and then grabbed her breasts.
DNA evidence taken from her neck was a billion times more likely to have come from Abdelsalam than someone else.
Abdelsalam, who moved to Brighton from Leeds the month before the attacks, was arrested after one of the incidents on February 12. He approached a woman on the beach near Volk’s Railway asking for a lighter and started touching her leg.
She told him to “f****** leave her alone” and found two women walking along the seafront for her to walk with.
He was arrested in the area and interviewed by police then released.
Richard Hearnden, prosecuting, said during his trial: “[His] sense of invincibility made him commit even more serious offences.
“His behaviour and pattern of it got more serious as time went on.”
Abdelsalam was also given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and he will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.
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