A MAN has been electronically tagged after being caught out performing a sex act in public.

Ian Stephen George Jones, 34, appeared at Mold Magistrates Court after being accused of touching himself in a sexual manner on a busy Wrexham road as well as careless driving. He admitted careless driving but denied indecent exposure but was convicted at an earlier hearing.

Jones , of Manley Road,Wrexham, was seen by a woman who had visited the Co-op on Poplar Road on June 30 at 3pm and noticed the open window of a silver Vauxhall Corsa parked as she walked past . She was ‘shocked’ to catch Jones pleasuring himself and left feeling ‘physically sick’ as she confronted him about what he was doing.

The prosecution told the court how the victim said in her statement the Jones was ‘laughing’ as he was caught but then attempted to get away from the scene as the woman stood back to get a photograph of the car on her mobile phone. Jones stalled his car as he attempted to reverse out of the parking space and then drove away at speed narrowly missing a cyclist.

Defending, Ms Cath Jagger said her client felt ‘immense’ shame.She said that the father-of-two accepted he was present in the vehicle but insisted that he was wearing shorts as an explanation for how the witness found him and was not engaging in a self-pleasuring act.

Jones was given a 24-month community order for the offences. He would be monitored 24 hours a day through a GPS tag for 12 weeks (until May 9) and added eight points onto his licence for the driving offence, bringing him up to a total of 11 points.

He must also register with the police as a sex offender for the next five years and was ordered to pay a total of £1,110 in fines paid at a rate of £30 per week – which included the careless driving offence.