Mohammed Abbas

Introduction

Mohammed Abbas is a 29-year-old asylum seeker who was jailed for six years at Cardiff Crown Court after breaking into a family home in the city and committing sexual acts in front of three sleeping young women, two of them children . Abbas, who had arrived in the UK in March, entered the house on 30 July 2025 and went into the bedroom where two children and their older sister were asleep . He pleaded guilty to burglary, trespass on a premises with intent to commit a sexual offence, and two counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, and Judge Lucy Crowther imposed a six-year custodial sentence with an extended three-year licence period .

Background Information

Abbas was living in accommodation provided by the Home Office in Cardiff, where he lived alone, at the time of the offence, and was in receipt of a £30-a-week asylum allowance, which the court heard he spent on food, alcohol, tobacco and cannabis . He had one previous conviction, for assault of a constable, and had been sentenced for separate offences on 14 July 2025, receiving a 12-month community order — meaning his Cardiff home invasion took place only 16 days after that order was made . The court was also told he had previously expressed misogynistic views, and that since being remanded he has exposed himself to prison staff while in custody .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Pleaded guilty; jailed for six years with an extended licence.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Abbas had been drunk and walking along a street in the city on the night of 30 July 2025 when he began trying to open the windows of houses . Once inside the family home he went upstairs into a bedroom where three sisters were asleep, and at around two o’clock in the morning one of the girls woke, saw a man crouched in the corner, initially took him for her brother and called out — he replied “sorry”, and she began to scream . Judge Lucy Crowther recounted that Abbas briefly left the room, came back, exposed himself and “must have realised then that these were all young women”, before repeatedly asking the girls — three times — whether they wanted to have sex with him . As the girls screamed in “obvious fear”, Abbas masturbated “right in front of them as they lay in their beds”, and when one girl struck him repeatedly with a pillow because she “didn’t know what else to do”, their screams woke the household, whose lights caused him to flee . It was later discovered he had also stolen a pair of Apple AirPods belonging to one of the girls and a jacket belonging to their father; the judge said the ordeal, roughly a minute and a half long, “must have felt like a lifetime of terror”, and told Abbas she was satisfied he had intended to rape at least one of the girls .

Public Reaction and Consequences

CCTV footage from neighbouring properties led officers to Abbas, and he was arrested at his Home Office accommodation; he initially denied the offences and claimed he had only left the house that night to buy food, but the stolen AirPods and jacket were found in his home and his DNA was linked to the door handle of the girls’ bedroom . In a statement read to the court, the victims’ mother said the case had affected her daughters’ emotional wellbeing, their education and their ability to feel safe at home, adding “every child deserves to feel safe in their own home” and that she could comfort her daughters but “can’t undo what happened” . Judge Crowther told Abbas the offending was “entirely about you and your sexual gratification, at any cost”, and said this type of offending “strikes unimaginable terror and fear into the hearts of right-minded people” .

Current Status

Abbas was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday 10 November 2026 to six years in custody with an extended licence period of three years, a structure the judge said reflected the “real and imminent” risk she found he poses to women and girls . The judge indicated the earliest point at which Abbas could be deported would be after he completes his custodial term . He pleaded guilty to all four counts he faced, so there was no trial, and the sentence hearing was the main public proceeding in the case .

Impact on Their Career/Life

Abbas, who had been in the UK for only a matter of months before the offence, now faces a six-year prison term followed by three years on extended licence, with the judge indicating deportation cannot happen before the custodial term is complete . His asylum claim, his entitlement to Home Office accommodation and his future in the country are all overtaken by the conviction, and the judge’s findings about the risk he poses to women and girls — together with his behaviour in custody since his arrest — will follow him through any future parole, transfer or deportation proceedings .

Sources

• “Asylum seeker jailed after exposing himself to girls in their bedroom” — BBC News, 12 November 2026: source