A FATHER exposed himself to women on five occasions while running around his neighbourhood, a court heard.

Steven Moss, 31, of Poole Field, Little Leigh, Northwich, was handed a three-year community order at Chester Crown Court on Wednesday, November 28. He had been arrested in August in John Brunner Crescent, Castle.

Hanging his head in the dock, he was also ordered to sign on the sex offenders register for five years and undergo a sex offenders treatment programme.

It emerged that Moss had struck five times this year – on January 27, April 8, April 15, June 3 and August 4. He exposed his genitals to women before running off.

Judge Steven Everett, the Recorder of Chester, said: “For reasons that are really mystifying you suddenly decided to embark on this course of conduct for a period of time where you were running around in some sort of training kit and exposing yourself to women who were unfortunate enough to be walking in that same locality.”

In a pre-sentence report compiled by the Probation Service, Moss explained his actions by saying he he was being a “bit of a tit”. He also claimed he received no sexual thrill from it.

The judge said he did not believe this and expressed concern that Moss did not grasp the seriousness of his offending and the effect it had on his victims.

In a victim impact statement, one of the women said she no longer feels safe in her neighbourhood.

Judge Everett told Moss: “You were undoubtedly getting some sort of perverse sexual gratification from doing what you did.

“You really blighted their lives. What you did may have been very brief but it’s had a truly long-lasting effect on them. It was a truly unpleasant and terrible incident for each of the victims. You gave no thought to that at all.”

Adam Antoszkiw, defending, stressed that Moss had accepted his guilt, was remorseful and has no previous convictions.

It was also said that the he struggled with mental health issues and was now working with charity Mind to address this.

The Probation Service had classed him as ‘low risk of reoffending’.

As part of the three-year community order, Moss must carry out 35 days of rehabilitation activity as well as the sex offenders treatment programme.

The judge told him he was lucky not to be going to jail, adding: “I promise that if you went into prison for six months as a sex offender, for that is what you are, then you would find life very hard.”