A man caught 'trying to have sex' with a plastic traffic cone at a train station told officers his trousers had simply 'fallen down'. He has been spared jail, the Manchester Evening News reports.
Trevor Smith, 48, was found 'thrusting his hips' towards a traffic cone in a lift at Wigan North Western train station on 14 April.
After pleading guilty to outraging public decency last month, he appeared at Bolton Crown Court today, where he was handed a suspended sentence.
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The court heard that two workers at the train station had stumbled upon Smith, who they found sitting on the floor of the lift with the cone on his lap.
In a victim impact statement, one of the workers said: "I believe he was trying to have sex with the cone."
They added: "I was in complete shock. I have not seen anything like that in all my time working on the railways."
In their statements, the workers said they were 'disgusted and appalled' by what they saw, with one claiming Smith was 'clearly' under the influence of drugs.
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When police arrived, Smith pulled up his pants. Officers also saw what appeared to be a snap-bag of drugs on the floor.
Duncan Wilcock, prosecuting, said: "When the lift door opened, the defendant was now on top of the cone and appeared to be thrusting his hips as though he was having sex with it.
"It was clearly a lift to which members of the public had access."
Smith told police he had been drinking heavily and watching football with friends in the afternoon leading up to the incident.
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He said friends thought he looked 'down', so gave him some white powder that Smith believed to be cocaine. When asked to explain how he came to be found in a compromising position with the traffic cone, he claimed his trousers had simply 'fallen down'.
The court also heard Smith had eight previous convictions, including two for public sex acts.
Gareth Bellis, defending, said his client had recently been offered a job at a Wigan-based plumbing firm, which was dependent on him avoiding jail.
Bellis said: "It will not have gone unnoticed that all previous convictions relate to drugs or alcohol. This offence directed relates to drugs and alcohol.
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"While there will be some assistance given during a custodial sentence, it is not the same as a probation officer having regular contact with the defendant and getting to the root cause of what is causing these offences.
"There is full-time work out there for this defendant. He has been offered a job by a plumbing company in Ince, Wigan."
Smith was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison suspended for two years, and has a curfew between the hours of 8pm and 6am.
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He was also told he must take part in a drug rehabilitation programme for up to 30 weeks.
Judge Walsh told him: "In a lift which the public had access to, you had bared the bottom half of your body and simulated sexual intercourse with an item akin to a traffic cone.
"Thankfully, no members of the public witnessed the disgusting behaviour that was taking place.
"You were heavily under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs at the time of the offence.
"Any decent members of the community who might have witnessed the offence would have been utterly appalled."
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