A 70-year-old man has been found not guilty of outraging public decency after neighbours complained about him constantly masturbating in his shed.
The man from Bodmin, who the Packet has chosen not to name to spare his blushes, was found not guilty of all four charges at Truro Crown Court today following a trial.
The jury were out for just under half an hour before returning to court to deliver a not guilty verdict.
The court had earlier heard that the family who’d complained about him said they had been forced to live behind their curtains so they wouldn’t see him masturbating naked at the window in his shed.
However, while he admitted carrying out the act at least three or four times a month, he wasn’t aware that anybody could see him as he had a put a black bin liner over the window, with a hole in it to check if anyone was coming while he was there.
The court heard that the man lived at his mother's house along with his partner, and in his rear garden was his garden shed.
The jury was told that this was where he would go to masturbate “which he did it a lot”. He told police in interview he did it three or four times a month.
“He told the police he took precautions by way of the black plastic bag to ensure he could see out but nobody else could see in, that’s why there was a hole in the middle of the black bag,” said Recorder Christopher Quinlan KC in his summing up of the case.
The judge told the jury the key to the case was the black bag, as the defendant said when he was doing the deed it was rolled down while witnesses who saw him said it was rolled up.
The incidents were said to have happened between November 15, 2021 and November 14, 2022 on four occasions.
The family claimed that the man deliberately masturbated in front of the window so they could see him.
One witness said they didn’t want to go round to the house to tell him to stop, as she was a young female who’d just seen a man with his penis out.
She said she finally went to the police because she couldn’t tolerate it any more.
But the man said his sex life was non-existent at home, and the shed was the only place he could go without being caught. He said he did not know he was seen, or intend to be seen by anyone else.
The jury believed him and found him not guilty on all four counts.
Recorder Quinlan told the man he was free to go but to take very great care in what he did in the future.
Share