A CARER in Cheshire performed a sex act on himself metres away from playing children moments before tending to an elderly patient.

Ali Bokhari was handed a 12-month community order at Warrington Magistrates Court on Tuesday, January 11, after admitting the ‘appalling act’.

The court heard that the 39-year-old parked his vehicle in front of a row of houses near a children’s play area in the town during the incident in April last year.

A resident then looked out of the window of her home to see him sat in the driver’s seat ‘hunched down’ performing a sex act as kids played in the garden of a nearby property.

Bokhari, of Manchester, then entered a house on the street in order to provide care to a pensioner.

The neighbour called the police, and the married dad-of-two admitted his actions to officers who attended the scene.

But the army veteran, who has no previous convictions, claimed that he was unaware that there were children nearby and ‘had no intention of causing others alarm or distress’.

Magistrates were told that he is ‘whole-heartedly regrets his actions which will live with him for the rest of his life’.

The ‘isolated incident’ was also described as being ‘completely out of character’, with Bokhari – who ‘prides himself in being a good father’ – now unemployed as a result of his actions.

He pleaded guilty to outraging public decency during an earlier hearing and was handed a 12-month community order with a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 35 days and 80 hours of unpaid work.

Sentencing, magistrates panel chairman Lynn Colter-Howard said: “I’m sure you are very embarrassed coming to court today on a matter like this, but we do accept that you are unlikely to do anything like this again.

“If you do, it would be very serious.”

Bokhari was also told to pay court costs of £85 and a £95 victim surcharge.