Britain's worst flasher jailed after police sting

Britain's worst flasher was caught in an undercover sting by an officer who filmed him performing his latest lewd act.

Paul Smith who uses disguises to carry out his lewd acts was caught exposing himself in the Northern Quarter, Manchester, by a covert police operation.

Pervert Paul Smith, 58, of no fixed address, was just 14 when he was first convicted of exposing himself.

Since then he has racked up 109 similar offences, been to jail a number of times, and been given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, all because of his bizarre compulsion to act indecently in public.

One of the terms of the court order - which is designed to prevent him flashing and performing lewd acts in public - bans him from disguising his appearance.

But on the afternoon of July 22 on Lever Street, one of the hottest days of the year, he put on a bizarre disguise consisting of a snood, a hat, and sunglasses, before acting indecently at a bus stop.

An undercover officer with a covert recording device filmed Smith as he pretended to perform a lewd act in front of disgusted witnesses in the Northern Quarter.

Now Smith has been jailed for two years after he admitted breaching a SOPO with the bizarre ‘disguise’.

Dan Gaskell, defending, told Manchester Crown Court:

Smith has been locked up repeatedly since 1998, including a 45-month sentence passed for exposing himself to two children in Bolton.

Mr Gaskell said that Smith’s behaviour had led to ‘increasingly longer sentences’, adding, ‘he’s effectively writing his life off’.

Sentencing, Judge Mansell said:

The judge told Smith he had accumulated an ‘an extensive and disturbing record of offending over many years, almost exclusively for offences of indecent exposure’.