A COUPLE who were found guilty of having sex in a public place have each been sentenced to 90 hours of community service.
Laurence Munks (43) and his 47-year-old partner Lisa Farrington were seen having sex on the steps at West Park in view of members of the public on the evening of 3 September last year.
During a trial in the Magistrate’s Court Munks claimed that he had been behind Farrington in order to squeeze a spot on her neck and that they had simulated intercourse as a joke.
But Magistrate Bridget Shaw labelled their account “inherently unreliable and not believable” and found them each guilty of offending public decency.
At the pair’s sentencing yesterday, Advocate Darry Robinson, defending Farrington, said she was “at low risk of reconviction and low risk of harm”.
He also pointed out: “The offence did not take place in front of children, and she and Mr Munks did not intend to be seen. This wasn’t a planned event. It was simply an offence by two intoxicated individuals.”
Advocate Nicholas Mière, appearing for Munks, accepted that his client had numerous previous convictions but he said none were of a sexual nature: “There is nothing of this character in his past. He will not get embroiled in something like this ever again.”
The Magistrate said that by pleading not guilty the pair had necessitated the trial and so ordered them each to pay £400 in court costs.
Alongside the community service, she also gave Munks a six-month probation order.
