A father of two who showed a “very concerning attitude towards young females” has been found guilty of propositioning a teenager in a shop.
Bruce Fahmi was working as a security guard when he approached the 14-year-old shopper before asking for her phone number and if she’d like to meet him after work.
He was 37 when he approached the girl and said: “I have been promising myself to talk to you … can we meet up? Can I get your number?”
However the now 45-year-old told a trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court that his grasp of the English language was too poor at the time to form such phrases, given they “do not exist” in his native Arabic.
The Moroccan national and tutor recruiter was accused of four similar charges against five different young girls all aged between 14 and 17 between January 2014 and March 2017.
He stood trial accused of three charges of threatening or abusive behaviour and one charge of stalking.
‘Sobbing and distressed’
Fiscal depute Victoria Kerr said the 14-year-old girl who Fahmi followed and approached in the Co-op at Cornhill Shopping Arcade on January 19 2014 was left “sobbing and distressed”.
“She gave evidence that the accused followed her around, spoke to her and asked if he could meet her after his work,” the fiscal said.
“She was crying, sobbing and distressed when telling her mother about the incident afterwards. The CCTV footage corroborates her account of the incident.”
Giving his own evidence, Fahmi claimed he thought the girl was a shoplifter and it was his job to keep an eye on her since she’d been “looking around constantly for signs of him”.
He further denied asking the girl out and claimed “that sentence doesn’t exist in Arabic”, explaining that his English wouldn’t have been good enough at the time to form such phrases.
He was found guilty of this charge.
The court heard further evidence from two young women who said Fahmi followed them around the Asda supermarket in Garthdee Road sometime in January or February 2014.
Those girls, who were 16 at the time, claimed he waved at them, followed them around the store then tried to beckon them to his car once outside.
In his defence, Fahmi claimed the girls were actually following him and that outside he was talking on his phone at the time and was gesticulating rather than waving.
Sheriff Ian Wallace found this charge to be not proven.
Fahmi was also accused of repeatedly parking outside Aberdeen Grammar School between December 2016 and March 2017, causing fear and alarm to two 16-year-old pupils there.
Regarding that charge, Fahmi said he was gesticulating about “animals and trees” as he was teaching his son about maths before school in the car.
However, the Crown dropped this charge mid-trial.
A final complainer told the court how Fahmi repeatedly followed her, parked outside her school and on one occasion blocked her path before winding down his car window to speak to her.
She immediately told the janitor at Aberdeen Grammar School, who described a car matching Fahmi’s black BMW leaving the scene on a date between December 2016 and March 2017.
That stalking charge was found not proven by Sheriff Wallace.
Finding Fahmi guilty of the incident in the Co-op, Sheriff Wallace told him: “I accept that you did follow her and you did proposition her.
“You asked her for her number and to meet up with you after work, or words to that effect.
“I consider the wording in her statement to have the ring of someone speaking to her with English as a second language.
“I found her to be a very measured witness and I consider the CCTV corroborated her account.
‘I have no difficulty in rejecting your account’
“It shows you watching her, it shows you following her and it shows you approaching her and engaging in conversations without any prompting from her.
“It is sufficient to confirm her account and I have no difficulty in rejecting your account.”
He said Fahmi’s story, that he believed the girl was a shoplifter and was following her to keep an eye on her, was an “implausible and inadequate” attempt to explain his actions.
Sheriff Wallace added: “What’s clear to me is that you have displayed a very concerning attitude towards young females. I believe there would be nothing to achieve by undertaking background reports.”
Fahmi, formerly of Berryden Road, Aberdeen, and now of London Road, Glasgow, was fined £1,000 to be paid within one week.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.