Asylum seeker found not guilty of sexual assault of woman in Bournemouth park
Abdinasir Elmi was living at the Roundhouse Hotel in the Dorset seaside resort
An asylum seeker from Somalia has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman in a Bournemouth park.
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Abdinasir Elmi, who was living at the Roundhouse Hotel in the Dorset seaside resort, was acquitted of sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault by touching on April 22 2025 following a trial at Winchester Crown Court.
The 26-year-old had been accused of walking with the teenager to Bournemouth Gardens where they sat on a bench where the incident was alleged to have happened.
Giving evidence, he told the court that he had not sexually assaulted the complainant and had only kissed her three times after she had kissed him and put her arm around him.
A previous court hearing was told that Elmi, an athlete, had his application for asylum turned down by the Home Office but he was appealing against that decision.
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Giving evidence with the assistance of a Somali interpreter, Elmi told the court he walked with the woman to the bench with her two dogs, where she made a phone call.
He said he sat “very close” to the complainant and she passed the phone to him at one point and he said hello to the man on the call.
Elmi said that after the complainant finished the call she “put her arm around my neck and kissed me and I kissed her back and I put my hand around her stomach on top of her clothing, that is all that happened”.
He added: “She kissed me and I kissed her back three times.”
Elmi said he did not touch the woman’s skin, breasts or between her legs.
He added that the complainant then left him and returned to the bus station to meet the friend from the phone call and he returned to his hotel.
Elmi added: “She was happy, she didn’t have any problems.”