A 25-year-old man who was twice caught carrying out a sex act on himself outside a Derby police station has escaped a jail term.


A 25-year-old man who was twice caught carrying out a sex act on himself outside a Derby police station has escaped a jail term.
At his original hearing in October, Derby Crown Court heard how Benjamin Dakin was spotted staring at St Mary’s Wharf police station, in Chester Green, with his hand down his trousers touching himself.
That case was told how a worker at a nearby firm, who witnessed it, challenged the 25-year-old and told him to leave the area or he would call 999.
But, a short time later, a different employee at the same firm looked out of the window and saw Dakin carrying out exactly the same act.
The offender, of Thornley Street, Burton, was arrested and the hearing was told how, earlier that same year, he had been convicted of committing the exact same offence outside Swadlincote police station.

Dakin’s previous offences include two convictions for calling the police and making sexual suggestions of what he would like to do to officers in police vehicles.

Judge Jonathan Bennett deferred his sentence for six months to see if he could keep out of trouble.
Now he has handed Dakin a two-year community order.

He said: “I had a stark choice when I deferred your sentence and I set you certain targets. The first was for you to continue to work with the probation service and you have done that.

“The second was for you to keep out of trouble which you have done.

“There is still quite a lot of work to do but in the circumstances I will deal with you today with a sentence that avoids immediate custody.

“But if you come back having offended again after today you can expect to get custody.”

Katrina Wilson, prosecuting the October case, said that, in April of last year, Dakin was initially jailed for 30 weeks after pleading guilty to indecent exposure when he was caught touching himself outside Swadlincote police station.

He successfully appealed that sentence and, in May, was handed a community order as an alternative punishment.

But, on July 30, he was spotted outside St Mary’s Wharf police station by a worker at SureScreen Diagnostics, in Prime Parkway.

Miss Wilson said: “He was described as being fixated on the police station with his hands down his trousers and touching himself sexually.

“That worker went and challenged the defendant telling him to leave the area or he would call the police.
“But around 15 minutes later a second worker at SureScreen spotted the defendant in the same position carrying out the same act.

“He banged on the window and said he would call the police but, by chance, an officer who was arriving at the station recognised the defendant as he had spoken to him a couple of days before when he was seen to be acting suspiciously around the station.

“That officer at the time he spoke to him did not realise the behaviour that was about to follow or about his apparent fascination with the police.”

As part of the community order, Dakin must attend a one-to-one program specifically tailored to try and rehabilitate him and address his offending.

He will also be subject to a 60-day curfew confining him to his home address each evening between 8pm and 6am.