Sign up for our Crime and Punishment Newsletter The inside stories on the latest court stories from Wales Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A man caught masturbating in a city centre as shoppers passed by said he did it because he could no longer afford prostitutes.

Iraqi-born Fershid Halmat Hemdadi was told he had "outraged public decency" with a "lewd, obscene or disgusting" act when he pleasured himself outside Primark in the middle of the day on July 25.

The young man, an asylum seeker who claimed to be 23 but gave the court three different ages, was in a public lane in Swansea when he was spotted with his hands down his trousers.

Swansea Magistrates Court heard he had been refused a cigarette from a woman next to St Mary's Church when he wandered into the alley.

When Swansea Council employee Alex Dubens apprehended him and asked if he had been masturbating, he replied "yes but I did not finish", adding that he had to do it there because he "didn't have anywhere else to go".

"It was very blasé. He didn't seem to comprehend the gravity of what he'd done," said Mr Dubens.

Hemdadi told the arresting officer two women passing in a car had seen them.

During his trial, Hemdadi pleaded not guilty to the act, claiming the lane was not public, the Evening Post reported .

The court was shown a video of police questioning Hemdadi, where he put his hands down his trousers and made movements to demonstrate what he had done.

Hemdadi laughed while the video was played.

When he tried to demonstrate in court what had happened on that fateful day, he was quickly told to stop by magistrate Nell Brown.

Speaking through an interpreter he said: "This court is a public place, McDonalds is a public place – the place this happened isn't."

He added it was in a "half private place" and "I didn't expose my penis".

"I used to have money and I paid for sex, but I don't, I'm sleeping on the streets."

He went on to explain he had been given a 25-year prison sentence in Iraq and after an early release he had fled the country for his safety.

Prosecuting lawyer Vaughan Pritchard-Jones said: "All the defendant has disputed is that this incident didn't take place in a public place, he doesn't dispute masturbating in the presence of members of the public."

Hemdadi has been in custody since he was arrested five weeks ago.

He was found guilty of outraging public decency and will be sentenced on September 21.