A JAIL sentence has been handed to a 25-year-old man who repeatedly approached young girls at a Carlisle park while touching himself indecently.

At the city’s crown court, Afghani asylum seeker Nasir Mohsini denied an allegation of outraging public decency but he was convicted after a trial.

Opening the case before the jury, prosecutor Tim Evans said the defendant committed the offence over three days in the summer of last year while in Bitts Park, along the banks of the River Eden.

The defendant and the girls who witnessed his behaviour – who were aged 15 and 16 at the time - were seen in the area for three consecutive days, beginning on June 13.

“The defendant was staring at the girls with his hands in his underwear,” said Mr Evans. “They were uncomfortable about this and asked him repeatedly to stop.”

The girls believed he was sexually aroused.

Another girl who was in the park described the defendant swimming in the river, and then lying down and staring at her and her friends.

She too noticed that the defendant had one of his hands down his pants. When she asked if there was a problem, he did not reply. That teenager also believed Mohsini was aroused.

Mr Evans described more similar behaviour by Mohsini on June 14, and 15, when the defendant was again seen staring at girls. When he stared at and approached some girls in bikinis, they began to dress.

One was so concerned she called her father, who in turn called the police. Mr Evans said: “The defendant was asked about going to the river in Rickerby Park on June 13, 14 and 15 and he said he went every day as it is the best place to swim.

“He said that he sees many people there, men and women and he can’t help who he looks at. He said the girls were 20 meters away, and as he was lying in the sun.”

Mohsini accepted he may have touched his genitals but insisted that this would have been unintentional.

The court heard also that there were concerns about how the defendant behaved while he was being interviewed by Durranhill Police HQ.

A woman who was asked to represent him at the station said he was leaning towards her, getting so close she had to lean back. At the time, he appeared to be touching his private parts through his trousers.

Police station staff also reported seeing the defendant touching himself an appearing to be aroused.

Mr Evans told the jury that the evidence from police station, with the defendant's apparent "inability to stop touching him sexually," provided powerful support for the prosecution version of what happened.

The defendant, formerly of London Road, Carlisle, was jailed for six months.