A man has admitted watching explicit videos on a train to Swindon.

Lee Jefferies, 52, of Abbotsbury Way, St Andrews Ridge, pleaded guilty to an act of outraging public decency at Swindon Magistrates Court on November 5.

Mr Ballinger, prosecuting, told the court that the witness had gotten onto the train at Bath Spa travelling towards Swindon at around 6pm on August 17 with his wife and young child, who was in a pushchair.

They were stood on the train by the doors and he went to look inside the carriage for somewhere his wife and child could sit down while the train was busy.

He told officers that when he looked inside the carriage, he was very shocked to see Jefferies sat on the train watching "masturbation films" on his phone.

The witness says it took a few minutes to process what he saw and then he reported it to the staff on the train, who phoned police.

(Image: Newsquest)

Officers were waiting at Swindon train station to arrest Jefferies and he was taken into custody for questioning.

Jefferies was said to give a “full and frank admission” when interviewed by police and explained he was watching videos of himself and did not think anyone else would be able to see his phone, but accepted there were passengers who saw the video.

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In mitigation, Mr Glendenning, defending, explained that Jefferies was sat in a single seat next to the luggage rack and the video was around five to 10 seconds long and was not identifiable as him.

He said Jefferies had no previous convictions and wanted to apologise to the passengers present as he had “no intention of upsetting or offending anybody.”

The Magistrate said it was “such an unusual case” and Jefferies had “lost his good character” following the incident. 

She warned him: “You’re in a public space and it is pretty upsetting for people to see that kind of thing being looked at on trains.

“You’re an adult and you shouldn’t be doing that on a train and I’m sure you’re really embarrassed to be here.”

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Nevertheless, the Magistrate told Jefferies she could deal with the offence “leniently” due to his guilty plea and previous good character and gave him a conditional discharge for one year, meaning that if he commits another offence he will be sentenced for this one along with that offence. 

Jefferies was also ordered to pay a ÂŁ26 surcharge and ÂŁ85 prosecution costs, totalling ÂŁ111.

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