A Maryport man who pulled down his trousers and made a lewd comment to a lone woman dog walker has been given a suspended prison sentence.
Stuart Relph, 32, was high on alcohol and drugs when he committed the offence, on a cycle path leading from a supermarket to the town’s harbour, at around 9.20am on May 21 last year.
A woman was walking her dogs when she initially encountered another member of the public, who reported that a man nearby had been acting strangely and made a bizarre comment.
As the woman walked on, she saw Relph whose demeanour appeared suspicious, Carlisle Crown Court heard. She noted there were no other people in the area.
While looking towards her, Relph pulled down the tracksuit bottoms he was wearing, before covering his genitals with his hands. He then commented, as he had earlier to the other passer-by: It’s a grower, not a show-er.
The woman later described being disgusted and appalled by Relph’s behaviour, and of now avoiding that area when dog walking.
Relph, of Windermere Road, Maryport, admitted a charge of outraging public decency.
This placed him in breach of a suspended prison sentence he was given in August 2023, for his role in a plot to bring cocaine into West Cumbria.
David Wales, mitigating for Relph, said the defendant had little to no memory of the outraging public decency offence, as he was using drugs and alcohol at the time.
Since then, though, he was a wholly different character who had turned his life around. “Through his own willpower he has made himself abstinent from cannabis, Valium and alcohol,” said Mr Wales.
A night shift job had allowed him to further revolutionise his life.
After hearing all submissions, Recorder Mark Ainsworth imposed a six-month jail term which he suspended for 18 months. Relph was ordered to complete rehabilitation work, and banned from drinking alcohol for 120 days.
He acknowledged Relph’s positive progress, but said of his latest offence: “People find it upsetting and distressing and threatening when they see people, like you, behaving in this way.”
