Footwear fetishist 'in state of denial'

Apr 4 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

A SELF-CONFESSED footwear fetishist who robbed women of their shoes told a court today he did not realise the “monster” he had become until he learned of his victims’ suffering.

Omar Abd-el-Gowd, 26, said the “sexual obsession I would do anything to get rid of” began when he spent a Christmas at his father’s aged 12.

He spotted a pair of shoes belonging to a woman house guest, found himself irresistibly attracted to them and began taking them to his bedroom whenever the opportunity arose. Once he had finished with her footwear he would always put them back where he had found them.

In the years that followed, his desire for women’s shoes increasingly dominated his life.

It was only when he moved to London from Stockton-on-Tees that he discovered an “abundance” of desirable footwear fashion and the robberies began - approaching them from behind and then quickly lifting up one of their feet and fleeing with one of their shoes.

“I would find it almost impossible to maintain a relationship because of this fetish,” he explained.

He told Inner London Crown Court that the estimated 200 shoes officers found in his bedroom, were stolen at parties, others were bought on ebay, while the latest batch was snatched from their owners’ feet.

The trial was adjourned until today.