A pervert "addicted to masturbation" and who has a mannequin fetish performed a sex act in front of a group of horrified train passengers - including a schoolgirl.
The child snapped a photo on her phone to show the train manager.
Mark Williams, formerly known as and convicted under the name Osian Winters, claimed that he was not performing a sex act on himself but was using a sex toy he found in a pub, North Wales Live reports.
While Williams, 28, was found to be in possession of such an object, the court heard that it did not match “the colour or shape” of what was shown in the image.
Williams has an extensive history of sexual offences involving children and has committed sex acts in public previously - including masturbating while looking at mannequins in shop windows.
He has also repeatedly breached court orders designed to try to curb his deviant behaviour.
Williams said he is addicted to masturbating.
Swansea Crown Court heard the defendant's most recent offence happened on a train between Carmarthen and Whitland in December last year.
Jim Davis, prosecuting, said the defendant was seen "masturbating in clear view of everybody in the carriage", including a young girl who was sitting nearby.
He said the youngster was able to take a photograph of the incident and when the train arrived in Whitland and Williams got off, she reported the matter to the train manager.
Police were contacted, and though Williams was wearing a Covid face mask and a baseball cap he was recognised on CCTV footage by a police officer who knows him.
The court heard the girl who reported the incident later told police she had been "disgusted" by what she had witnessed.
The prosecutor said the defendant was arrested on December 21 and in his subsequent interview denied the offence, telling officers "he had been masturbating a dildo he found in a public house".
Mr Davis said Williams was found to own such an item but it was "different in colour and shape" from what was captured in the photograph taken on the train.
Mark Williams, of Lammas Steet, Carmarthen, had previously pleaded guilty to outraging public decency when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has 13 previous convictions for 26 offences, some 15 of which are of a sexual nature.
In 2016 he was made the subject of sexual harm prevention order after being convicted of six counts of causing or inciting a girl under 16 to engage in sexual activity and two counts of possessing indecent images.
These offences related to extensive and sexually explicit online Skype chat he had with a 15-year-old girl.
In September 2018 he was given a community order after being caught on CCTV pleasuring himself while looking at mannequins in the window of Topshop in Carmarthen town centre.
On that occasion, the judge told the defendant he should aim to establish an appropriate adult relationship with a partner rather than "walking around the centre of town in the dead of night being excited by mannequins".
Whitland warehouse worker Williams has also numerous convictions for breaching court orders designed to control his online activities and the court has previously heard how he played "cat and mouse" with the police by using a smart TV and computers in his local library to try to hide his internet use.
He has also previously been found to be working in a cinema after not fully disclosing his past to his employers. Williams also has a conviction for failing to promptly tell the police about his change of name from Scott Aaron Williams to Osian Winters.
James Hartson, for Williams, said the defendant had asked him to apologise to the girl in the carriage and said his client stressed that he had not targeted the youngster.
He said they were the defendant’s instructions that what had started out as a "coping strategy" when he was a young man had "effectively become an addiction to masturbating", which had then developed into masturbating in public.
Judge Catherine Richards said children should be safe using public transport, and parents should be able to feel their children are safe in such an environment.
She told the defendant he had been committing sexual offences and breaching court orders for the last decade, and that community orders and suspended sentences had been tried in the hope of trying to deal with his behaviour while latterly prison sentences had been imposed with the aim of deterring him.
With a one-quarter discount for his guilty plea, Williams was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He must serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. He was also made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order designed to control his behaviour.
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