Nikolay Nikolov 23

Description

A creepy passenger who stared at a woman and her children while fondling himself on the bus to Cullompton has been sent to prison - a year after being convicted of an almost identical offence. Nikolay Nikolov was on his way home from some unpaid work ordered by the court when he sat himself close to a family on the top deck.

The 23-year-old Bulgarian was soon staring at the woman's breasts before shifting his perverted gaze to her three-year-old daughter. The woman told him to stop and moved seats but Nikolov followed them and carried on acting strangely.

The children told the woman that the man had exposed himself and CCTV later revealed he spent much of the journey between Exeter and Cullompton rubbing his crotch and masturbating.

Nikolov admitted outraging public decency when he appeared at court. The offence also put him breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order imposed by the courts in 2022 for touching himself while staring at teenage girls on a bus.

Nikolov, of Fore Street, Cullompton, has now been jailed for 16 months. The judge said he had not learned his lesson from his previous sentence and was still a risk to the public.

The offence happened in September after Nikolov had completed a session of unpaid work and boarded at Exeter Bus Station. The woman, two children aged three and seven and her 13-year-old nephew, were upstairs on the back seat.

Nikolov sat in the row in front of them - ignoring many empty seats, said prosecutor Ms Hollie Gilbery. He started staring at the woman, trying to look down her top, and at the younger child. When she told him to stop he said he was sorry but 30 seconds was at it again.

The woman moved with the children to a different part of the bus but Nikolov crossed the aisle to get closer. He resumed his staring at the child and the woman went downstairs to tell the driver.

While she did that the older children noticed his exposed penis. CCTV revealed he had been fondling for a significant proportion of the journey. The woman called police who recognised the description and arrested him at his home.

He initially told police he had been masturbating on the bus but denied he was aroused by the other passengers.

Nikolov was banned from sitting next to females on public transport at the time because of his previous behaviour. He has breached his SHPO twice before and been punished with more unpaid work.

Mr Brian Fitzherbert said he had not been able to complete rehabilitation work with probation previously because of his lack of English. But he said his English language skills were not much improved. He is sorry for his behaviour and wants to stop.

Judge David Evans said Nikolov was not a good prospect for rehabilitation at the moment and his risk could not be managed in the community. The defendant will serve half of his sentence in prison and be subject to a SHPO for seven years.

The order bans him from following and sitting next to females on public transport.