THE CASE against a man accused of outraging public decency near Lydiard Park was thrown out of court.

Calum Ogilvy, 46, said the allegation had affected his family, his health – and his business.

The accusation that he had been seen performing a sex act upon himself as he sat in his parked car on Hook Street last July was strenuously denied. Mr Ogilvy said he had been having difficulties with his broken sat nav, which was later that morning found by mechanics to be the result of a loose wire.

And on Wednesday, Judge Peter Crabtree directed the jury at Swindon Crown Court return a not guilty verdict when it became clear that the prosecution would not be able to prove its case.

He said the case would not meet the “two-person test”. The jury was told that the case law made it clear the alleged indecent behaviour must be witnessed or be capable of being witnessed by two people, where in Wednesday’s case only one person claimed to have seen the behaviour.

Speaking after his acquittal, Mr Ogilvy described the last year as “the most stressful”. His health had suffered and his family and business had also been affected as a result of the initial allegations and the publicity surrounding the case.

He said: “I don’t think it’s fair that my family has been through hell and back over the last year for the process the CPS [should] blatantly have put into place to stop this happening. We have gone through hell.”

Mr Ogilvy expressed sympathy for the woman who claimed to have witnessed the incident.

Earlier, Swindon Crown Court heard that a female university student had parked up in a layby on Hook Street, by Lydiard Park, on July 19, 2020.

She claimed to have seen Ogilvy, who was sat alone in a Skoda, moving his hand up and down as she walked past his parked car towards the Event Field in Lydiard Park. She had not seen his genitals. The woman alleged he had then wound down his window and then made three noises, which she described as “moaning sexually”. She claimed he had later sounded his horn.

The woman, who said she did not look back when she heard the sounds, ran to a family walking in the park. “She looked very distressed,” the mother – who was walking with her partner and two children – told jurors. The police were called.

Mr Ogilvy was arrested at home later that day. He was to tell police that he’d parked up on Hook Street, where he was trying to get the satellite navigation system to work and was adjusting his car’s electrics, before going to a specialist towbar mechanic in the Rivermead industrial estate.

After a tow bar was fitted previously the sat nav had stopped working, he said. The specialist mechanics' firm – Ace Towbars - discovered that a cable had come loose.

When it became clear that a second Crown witness had not been in a position to see Ogilvy or his car when the woman claimed to have passed the vehicle, prosecutor George Threlfall took instructions from the Crown Prosecution Service.

He confirmed that the Crown would not pursue the trial and asked the judge to direct the jury return a not guilty verdict.

Judge Crabtree told the jury: “The evidence in front of you - and it is at its highest at the moment - is that one person saw [the alleged offence].” He added: “The Crown have not established that the two person rule as I put it has been satisfied and in those circumstances I have stopped the case.”

Mr Ogilvy, of Uffington, near Shrivenham, did not have a chance to give evidence in his own defence as the case was abandoned before the prosecution formally closed its case. He was acquitted.

A CPS spokesman said after the hearing: “The CPS has a responsibility to keep cases under constant review, even when a trial has started.

“After the trial had started in this case, new evidence came to light which made it clear that the evidential test was no longer met.   In accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors, it was decided that the prosecution case must be stopped.”