A barber preyed on teenage boys at his hairdressers – and sexually assaulted one of them after telling him to close his eyes so he could use hairspray on him.
Hristo Georgiev convinced the youngster to shut his eyes, then touched him sexually over his clothes before the 15-year-old escaped and raised the alarm.
The week before, the 26-year-old invited another customer to have sex in the bathroom of the barbers, in the village of Coedpoeth, Wales.
Georgiev admitted three sexual offences against the two victims and was jailed for a total of 27 months today at Mold Crown Court, in Flintshire.
North Wales Live reports the judge said: “It’s so wrong that parents can’t send their children to have a haircut without them being safe from sexual abuse.”
Prosecutor Joshua Gorst said the first customer, also aged 15, sat in the barber’s chair at the shop this summer. The defendant quickly turned the conversation into a sexual one.
Georgiev ask the teenager, who cannot be named to protect his anonymity, how may people he had had sex with and whether he committed sex acts with his friends. The teenager felt “extremely uncomfortable”, the court heard.
The teenager told him he was only 15. But after the haircut, Georgiev took him to a back room shop and asked: “Do you want to come in here for your first time?”
The teenager later said he had “no doubt whatsoever that was a sexual proposition,” said the prosecutor. The teenager left and told his mother who reported the incident to North Wales Police.
A week later another 15-year-old boy went into the barbershop. The defendant asked him: “Are you horny?” and asked him if he wanted to perform a sexual act.
Georgiev asked him another intimate question and whether he watched pornography. He then asked the teenager, still in the chair, to close his eyes. He sprayed lemon hairspray on him, put his hand on his crotch and started to rub him intimately over his trousers.
Georgiev asked the teenager, who cannot be named to protect his anonymity, how many people he had had sex with and whether he committed sex acts with his friends. The teenager felt “extremely uncomfortable”, the court heard.
Maria Masselis, defending, said her client is genuinely sorry. He has brought shame on himself and his family. He has a good work ethic.
She said Georgiev, who had the benefit of a Bulgarian interpreter for today’s sentencing hearing, was brought up by his grandmother as his parents were “incapable” of doing so. He worked as a kitchen porter for three years before coming to the UK.
The judge, His Honour Niclas Parry told Georgiev it was a worrying case. “This behaviour was not only predatory but the level of risk that you were prepared to take in a public place shows how far you were prepared to go.
“As the persistence of your actions emphasised you are clearly unable to control yourself.” The attempted sexual offence was only ended by that victim not the defendant.
And the judge said: “It’s so wrong that parents can’t send their children to have a haircut without them being safe from sexual abuse. The boys would have been hugely embarrassed as well as being upset.
“It’s to their credit and bravery that they came forward to complain when they would no doubt have preferred that it never happened. But their actions may well have protected others from similar conduct in the future.”
Georgiev, of no fixed address, admitted inciting a boy aged 15 to engage in sexual activity and was jailed for 24 months. He also admitted two sexual assaults on a male and was given three months for each, with one concurrently, making a total of 27 months.
He was also given a ten-year sexual harm prevention order prohibiting him from having unsupervised contact with any boy under 16 unless conditions are complied with, and to notify the authorities of his circumstances.
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