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A man was caught trying to 'have sex with a plastic traffic cone' at a train station by shocked staff.

Trevor Smith was spotted 'thrusting his hips' towards the object in a lift at Wigan North Western station, the Manchester Evening News reports.

The 48-year-old from St Helens, Merseyside, was sitting on the floor with his trousers and underpants pulled down, with the upturned cone on his lap.

When police were called to the scene they found him drunk and drugged-up on top of the cone with his pants still down.

(Image: MEN Media)

Bolton Crown Court heard when he was questioned by officers he told them his trousers had fallen down.

Smith, who has two previous convictions for public sex acts, walked free today as a judge handed him a suspended sentence.

The court heard that at around 9.30pm, a Virgin Rail worker asked a colleague to join him in the lift up to platform four at the station.

As they looked through the lift's window, they saw Smith sitting on the floor with the cone on his lap.

"I believe he was trying to have sex with the cone," one of the workers said.

"I was in complete shock. I have not seen anything like that in all my time working on the railways."

In victim impact statements, the pair said they were 'disgusted and appalled' by what they saw.

One told the court Smith was 'clearly' under the influence of drugs and did not appear to be aware of what he was doing.

(Image: MEN Media)

While one of the workers contacted British Transport Police (BTP), the other tried to stop people from seeing what was happening.

After realising police had arrived and were watching him, Smith pulled up his pants.

Duncan Wilcock, prosecuting, said: "When the lift door opened, the defendant was now on top of the cone and appeared to be thrusting his hips as though he was having sex with it.

"It was clearly a lift to which members of the public had access."

Officers approached him and detected remnants of white powder around his face.

A snap-bag of drugs was also found on the lift floor and, as a result, Smith was arrested on suspicion of a drugs offence.

No further action was taken on that matter.

He was then de-arrested and allowed to return for voluntary interview the following day.

(Image: El Pollock/WIkipedia)

Smith told police he had spent the hours leading up to the incident drinking heavily and watching football.

Friends thought that he was getting 'down' so they gave him some white powder, which Smith believed to be cocaine, to perk him up, the court heard.

He told officers he had gone to catch the train home and entered the lift thinking it was a locked room and that was all he could remember.

The court heard Smith had eight previous convictions, including two for public sex acts.

The first, in 2012, came after a female neighbour saw Smith performing a sex act naked while 'on all fours' on the roof of a kitchen in Bickershaw Lane, Wigan.

He received a conditional discharge from magistrates, but was arrested again in 2015 after being found performing an indecent act while covered in a blanket inside a car in Gordon Street, Leigh.

When asked to stop by a passer-by, Smith refused and continued to pleasure himself for a period of up to 40 minutes.

A three-year community order was imposed by Liverpool Crown Court, which Smith then breached.

(Image: MEN)

The order was revoked and he was handed a three-month prison sentence.

Gareth Bellis, defending, called on Judge Martin Walsh to let Smith off with a suspended sentence, as well ordering him to attend a drug and alcohol rehabilitation programme.

He said his client had recently been offered a job at a Wigan-based plumbing firm, which was dependent on him avoiding jail.

Mr Bellis said: "It will not have gone unnoticed that all previous convictions relate to drugs or alcohol. This offence directed relates to drugs and alcohol.

"While there will be some assistance given during a custodial sentence, it is not the same as a probation officer having regular contact with the defendant and getting to the root cause of what is causing these offences.

"There is full-time work out there for this defendant. He has been offered a job by a plumbing company in Ince, Wigan."

Smith had previously appeared before magistrates in Wigan, where he pleaded guilty to outraging public decency during the drunken incident.

His case was sent to Crown Court after magistrates decided that, in light of Smith's previous offending, their powers were not sufficient to sentence him.

Today, Smith was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison suspended for two years after he previously admitted a charge of outraging public decency..

He has also been made subject to a curfew between the hours of 8pm and 6am and told he must take part in a drug rehabilitation programme for up to 30 weeks.

Judge Walsh told him: "In a lift which the public had access to, you had bared the bottom half of your body and simulated sexual intercourse with an item akin to a traffic cone.

"Thankfully, no members of the public witnessed the disgusting behaviour that was taking place.

"You were heavily under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs at the time of the offence.

"Any decent members of the community who might have witnessed the offence would have been utterly appalled."