CONVICTED: Mohammed Rehman leaves Bradford Crown Court

A MAN caught performing an indecent act on himself at a Bradford swimming baths has been banned from every leisure centre in West Yorkshire.

Mohammed Rehman, 30, was seen with his swimming shorts round his knees in the communal showers at Eccleshill Swimming Pool in Bradford, on the afternoon of November 13 last year.

He pleaded guilty at Bradford Crown Court to outraging public decency and was sentenced to a two year community order with supervision and a high intensity activity requirement with the probation service.

Rehman, of Penzance Court, Girlington, Bradford, must sign on the sex offenders register for five years.

Judge John Potter made a Sexual Offences Prevention Order barring him entering any swimming baths or leisure centre in West Yorkshire until further notice.

Prosecutor James Bourne-Arton told the court that a female staff member at Eccleshil Swimming Pool saw Rehman committing a sex act on himself in the communal showers.

She alerted the manager and the area was cordoned off because members of the public with children were using the pool at the time.

The police were called and Rehman, who said he was "having a normal shower" was arrested at the scene.

Judge Potter issued a warrant for his arrest when Rehman failed to attend court for his 10am sentencing hearing today.The court heard he had no previous convictions for sexual offences.

The judge withdrew the warrant when Rehman turned up several hours later, after his solicitor advocate, Julian White, warned he was invariably late.

The last time Rehman attended court he showed up in the afternoon for a morning hearing, and he attended an appointment to see his probation officer at the wrong time and on the wrong day.

Judge Potter said that although children were present at the swimming baths, none saw Rehman commiting the offence.

He told him: "It is an unpleasant incident on any view, Mr Rehman, and you must not behave in this way in the future."

Rehman was originally charged with another similar offence, said to have taken place five days earlier in the cafe area at the Richard Dunn Sports Centre in Bradford.

The Crown decided not to pursue that allegation after his plea of guilty to the offence at the swimming baths.