A young teenage girl was left shocked when she suddenly spotted a man involved in “disgusting” sexual activity while sitting in his car and holding a mobile phone.
The 13-year-old schoolgirl was with another girl and a boy when they walked past the car and she realised to her horror what was going on. She later walked back to the car and told him: “You shouldn’t be doing something like that in public. It’s disgusting.” He quickly apologised and told her that she was not supposed to have seen it, Hull Crown Court heard.
Jay Binnington, 24, of Armistice Park, Driffield, admitted an offence of exposure on June 27, 2022. Harry Bradford, prosecuting, said that, at 7pm, a 13-year-old girl was leaving her friend’s home and was walking with the other girl and a boy. They saw a man – later identified as Binnington – sitting in a parked silver Volvo car. He was moving his arm.
She continued to walk along and passed the car. Within three or four minutes, she turned around and saw that the man was involved in sexual behaviour. A mobile phone was in his other hand.
The girl walked back towards the car and told him: “You shouldn’t be doing something like that in public. It’s disgusting.” Binnington told her: “I’m sorry. I wasn’t meant for you guys to see that.” The girl’s grandmother told her to take a picture of the silver Volvo with a zoomed-in image of Binnington.
The next day, a woman was walking along and saw the Volvo parked. Binnington had his knees fully raised up. She had been made aware of the incident the previous day and she alerted the police.
Binnington was arrested and his mobile phone was analysed. It was discovered that there had been multiple visits to a flashers website that specialised in “voyeurism and exhibitionist behaviour”. He seemed to be, at the time, “obsessed with” the website where this sort of behaviour could be viewed, the court heard.
During police interview, Binnington admitted being in the car but he denied committing any offence. He had no previous convictions. Binnington originally denied the offence and, at a hearing before Hull Magistrates’ Court, he elected to have his case heard by a jury in a trial at Hull Crown Court. The case was set for trial but he later pleaded guilty.
His basis of plea, that he did not intend to cause the girl alarm or distress, that he was surprised when the children walked from behind the car and that he did not intend them to see his private parts, was accepted by the prosecution.
Rachel Scott, mitigating, said that Binnington, an engineer, was embarrassed about the incident but he claimed that he was not filming himself at the time. He had been holding his phone. “There is no evidence of what he was looking at,” said Miss Scott. “He didn’t intend the child to see him.”
Binnington was given 15 days’ rehabilitation and he was ordered to pay £1,000 costs. He will have to register as a sex offender for five years.