A fowl-mouthed flasher who walked through a city in the middle of the day completely naked has been jailed.
Homeless man Philip Knott was videoed by several people as he strolled through Stoke-on-Trent city centre on one of the hottest days of the year so far, completely nude. Eye-witnesses said he was verbally abusive to people as he walked down Parliament Row on June 22, past the Wetherspoons and McDonald's.
Other people claim he was "thrusting his genitals" towards shoppers and making lewd gestures before police arrested him after being called to the area at around 1.20pm. The 53-year-old has now been jailed for 43 weeks after pleading guilty to exposure and two offences of common assault.
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A report from StokeLive states one eye-witness said: "He made his way down past Gregg's, past Poundland, past Pound Bakery and then he was near McDonald's. The guy was shouting things and thrusting himself near the people outside of Wetherspoons. It was awful, it made me sick.
"He flashed someone's child, it was very disturbing. It was disgusting. He was shouting things like 'I know you want it' and 'I know you're jealous aren't you'. He was going up to the people sat outside Spoons on the chairs and tables near McDonald's. When the police caught him the dad who's child got flashed was visibly upset and the police just pushed him away almost to the ground."
Another bystander said: "I was sitting with family having a lemonade on the seats outside the pub opposite McDonald's. It was terrible what he was saying to women and the actions he was doing. It was all in front of little kids."
A woman, who was also in Hanley at the time, said: "He was thrusting his bits in people's faces and saying things like 'you want it'."
Another shopper added: "I was there with family too. It was terrible what he said to women and the actions. It was all in front of small children." And a fifth said: "I was outside Spoons and he was giving people abuse for looking at him."
Knott, who has battled issues with alcohol and drug addiction has a history of committing similar offences, after being jailed for 10 months for a disturbing event in Hanley where he left pornography strewn around the ground outside Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, before performing a sex act on himself in front of a CCTV camera and "mooning" at it.
Later that day, he stripped naked at a city centre bus stop in Marsh Street South and lay on the ground before shaking his genitals in front of a woman in the street. He then spat food into the face of a police officer who was trying to deal with him, and ended up being PAVA sprayed so he could be arrested. On that occasion, Knott admitted assaulting an emergency worker and three counts of indecent exposure.
Those offences came after he was jailed for 10 months for 'strikingly similar' offences the previous November. In his police interview the defendant said it was a hot day, he saw people staring at him so he dropped his boxer shorts and exposed himself. And in 2018, Knott head-butted a police officer 15 times to his chest after being arrested for repeatedly swearing in Stafford Street, Hanley.
Knott has now been placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years.
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