A 42-YEAR-old dad who has become a sex offender since suffering a brain injury in an accident about 20 years ago has avoided jail for flashing at young women and girls and committing a lewd act in front of them.

Shane Rees, of Curtis Street, was already subject to a suspended prison sentence when he exposed himself on July 3 last year.

But Judge Jamie Tabor QC at Gloucester Crown Court said he accepted that Rees’ ‘unpleasant behaviour’ was the result of brain damage and that the best course would be for him to be helped to understand and control his behaviour in future.

“Frontal lobe injury is very destructive because the frontal lobe controls how you behave and react. It also has a lot to do with temper and temper management and things of that nature,” the judge said.

“Nevertheless, you must understand that you are insulting women on a regular basis. I deferred sentence on you four months ago to see if there was a way of dealing with you without locking you up.

“There is. You have been doing one to one work with the probation service – are you getting anything from it? “

“Yes, sir,” said Rees.

The judge sentenced him to six months jail suspended for two years and placed him under supervision with a condition to attend 25 days of rehabilitation activities.

“Now the probation service know it is a brain injury that is causing you to behave in this unpleasant way, maybe they can tailor a programme to deal with that,” Judge Tabor said.

Prosecutor Caighli Taylor told the court at the last hearing “Two women in their 20s were walking past the Co-op shop on Seymour Road, Linden, in Gloucester. They saw the defendant sat in his car in the driver’s seat. He had his left knee raised up, his genitals exposed and he was masturbating. He had his passenger window lowered. They walked on, and then noticed him driving past them as they left. They say he was smirking.

“Later a woman with her two year old daughter saw him park up near a childrens play area. There were three girls aged about ten. She walked over and saw he had his left leg stretched out, he was masturbating.

“Children from the play area were heard to say they had seen him masturbate. A member of the public got his number plate and that led to his arrest.

Rees has 16 convictions for 46 offences. He has 13 previous exposure offences. He did it for the first time in 1999.

Sarah Jenkins, for Rees, told the court that he had been referred to a specialist psycholgist since the last hearing and that had provided insight into the sort of disinhibition that comes from this sort of frontal lobe injury.

Rees had fully engaged in the process and had attended all the appointments he was required to, she said.

She said: “Work is ongoing with him. The recommendation to the court seems to be that he would benefit from completion of one to one interaction which is specifically addressing the problems cause by his injury.”