"APOLOGIES" was all a man had to say after being caught pleasuring himself as he sat behind a mother and her eight-year-old son on a public bus.

Today Furness Magistrates' Court heard how on July 26 Daniel Brown, of South Row, Barrow, was caught in the obscene act on the number four bus to Barrow.

Mrs Pam Ward, prosecuting, said the 42-year-old defendant got on the bus near Roose Primary School in North Row around 9.15am, sitting at the back. Around 10 minutes later a woman and her young child alighted, sitting in the seat in front of Brown.

She continued saying that close to the Aldi Store in Risedale Road, the woman turned around to see Brown touching his genitals, commenting the mother found his actions "disgusting."

Mrs Ward said: "She was disgusted to see that. She said 'you can't do that here'. He said 'apologies'."

The driver was alerted, stopped at the Park Leisure Centre in Risedale Road and asked the defendant to get off the bus.

Miss Amy Watkin, defending, said her client accepted what he did was wrong, but only carried out the obscene act due to a medical condition.

She said: "He has an acute brain injury relating to an accident in 1996. This has left him a shadow of his former self.

"The nature of the brain injury has left him with behaviour and social difficulties, memory loss and uncontrollable impulses that he acts upon."

She added he would soon be receiving advanced medical care and psychological counselling at Furness General Hospital in order to tackle his problems.

Brown, who pleaded guilty to one count of outraging public decency, was sentenced to a three-month curfew, restricting him to his address between 6pm and 6am.

He was also fined £200, and ordered to pay an £85 victim surcharge and court costs of £85.

Related content:

A Barrow man will be sentenced at Preston Crown Court after being found with two knives on him

A pub goer has been accused of headbutting a man to the floor

A woman will appear in court after driving dangerously in a residential street