A MAN has been jailed for masturbating in a pool-side sauna at a Chester leisure centre.

Raymond Lee Cowap, 39, was spotted by a shocked father who had taken his daughter swimming at Northgate Arena on August 13 this year.

Chester Magistrates Court heard that the witness immediately alerted a lifeguard.

Cowap has previous convictions for pleasuring himself on a train in Wirral in 2014, outside his former home in Wirral in 2016 and on a bus between Chester and Ellesmere Port last year.

Rob Youds, prosecuting, said the witness to the sauna incident had been left “very distressed” at the sight of Cowap with his shorts pulled down.

Realising he had been seen, the defendant quickly pulled his trunks up and left the area – only to be apprehended shortly afterwards.

He later pleaded guilty to committing an act outraging public decency and breaching a sexual harm prevention order imposed by Wirral magistrates in 2016.

David Kirwan, defending, tried to argue against an immediate prison sentence but magistrates chose to lock Cowap up for four months.

Cowap, of Watergate Street, Chester, is said to have difficulty remembering things – a common issue among people with autistic conditions.