A NEWPORT man has been found guilty of indecently exposing himself in the presence of a five year old girl.

James West, of Sedgemoor Court, Newport, was found guilty at Newport Magistrates Court of one count of indecent exposure taking place last November.

Prosecutor Tom Roberts told the court during a trial how around 5pm that Saturday evening the complainant had parked in the Emlyn Street car park facing the swimming pool of Newport Leisure Centre where her daughter, then aged five, was due to attend a pool party.

The witness left her daughter in the car to see how much the ticket for the car park was and on returning a second time to put the ticket in the windscreen looked to her right and saw West committing a sex act.

West, 30, denied the charge.

The witness told the court how when she had parked there were no other cars around her and left her daughter strapped into a booster seat in the car to find out the price of a ticket.

She said she returned to get her purse and on returning to the car for a second time to put the ticket in saw the car, a burgundy Mazda, parked next to hers.

“I was quite taken aback by what I saw,” she said.

“I looked into the back of the car to make sure my daughter was ok and hoped she wasn't looking in that direction.

“It was very distressing I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

The complainant said that when she glanced at West again he was still committing the sex act.

She made a mental note of the registration and went into the leisure centre and asked reception to call the police.

Alan Bolter, defending, said West had been rolling a cigarette and was not committing the sex act.

West said he was on his way to Asda when he pulled into the car park to roll a cigarette in his lap using tobacco from a pouch in his pocket.

He said he was going to smoke it in the car park but a security guard came out and fearing he would have to pay for a ticket he decided to leave and go to Spar instead of Asda. He said he was not aware of any cars parked nearby.

Magistrates found him guilty. Chairman of magistrates Peter Fry called the defendant’s defence “a self-serving pack of lies”.

West was released on unconditional bail while a pre-sentence report is carried out and he will be sentenced on March 26 at Newport magistrates court.