AN ARRESTED man lay down on the floor of his cell and began to perform a sex act because he was drunk, bored and thought he was at home, a court heard.

Prosecutor Ben Worthington told Swindon Magistrates’ Court that Peter Szabo, 45, had been arrested on unrelated matters last August and taken to Gablecross police station.

“He was somewhat unhappy he’d been arrested and he was in his cell. He’d been told to use the toilet because I think he’d tried to pull down his trousers previously.

“He was then on the floor in the cell and he pulled down his trousers and started to play with his penis, which was obviously [caught] on CCTV cameras in his cell.”

When he was interviewed, Szabo said he wanted to make the police officers feel uncomfortable.

Mark Glendenning, defending, said: “He was drunk, accepts he’s in the cell, was unhappy at being arrested.

“What he tells me this morning is it’s not so much an intention to upset the police officers. He was drunk, bored and he thought he was at home in bed.”

The defendant accepted his actions would have upset the officers, his solicitors said.

Szabo, of Manchester Road, Broadgreen, pleaded guilty to indecent behaviour in a police station. The offence, which was added to the statute book in 1847, carries a maximum fine of 40 shillings or seven days imprisonment.

He had been arrested on a warrant issued by the court after he failed to turn up to an earlier hearing.

Magistrates fined him £100, but deemed it paid by time served in the police cells overnight.