A Penzance man has pleaded guilty to committing an act outraging public decency after being spotted having sex on a bench in Penzance.

District Judge Kevin Gray at Truro Magistrates’ Court heard that police officers were called to a shelter on the promenade in Penzance on a Sunday afternoon after members of the public complained that a man and a women were openly having sex there.

Alison May, for the CPS, told Judge Gray that there were a number of families nearby with children and that when officers arrived they found the couple lying on the shelter floor, naked from the waist down, the man on top of the woman.

Both were obviously under the influence of alcohol, and were arrested.

In court Jamie Lynn, 39, of Garswood, Alexandra Road, Penzance, pleaded guilty to committing an act outraging public decency by engaging in sexual activity including sexual intercourse.

Ms May said when Lynn was spoken to by the police he was not keen to talk about his behaviour, saying he could not recall very much about it because he had been drinking, which did not mix with the medication he was taking.

He said he and the woman had been “kissing and cuddling, and stuff” and was reluctant to go further although he did not deny the accounts given.

Lynn told the District Judge that what he did had not been planned. He had had a really bad year, going through a lot, and that day had found someone to talk to, when what they did just happened.

He was sent to Truro Crown Court on January 8 for sentence.

A 37-year-old woman from Liskeard, facing a similar allegation, did not appear in court.