Despite protestations from Stephen Robert McCaughey that he was not doing anything wrong, Deputy District Judge Philip Mateer said he was satisfied the 41-year-old was guilty.
Accordingly, the Lisburn Magistrates Court judge recorded a guilty verdict on a charge of exposure.
During a brief contest at court last Friday, the judge heard how the two witnesses had met up in the car park at Sprucefield park and ride on 31 January this year.
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Giving evidence, Paul Neish told the court that after his colleague Holly Graham got into his car, the pair had been talking when, “I noticed there was someone in the car beside us.”
“At first, he was looking over intermittently at us and I thought that was a bit strange, so I mentioned it to Holly,” Mr Neish said, adding that “what struck me was that I couldn’t see the driver’s seat, I could only see the passenger seat.”
He explained that as he looked across, he noticed that the driver’s seat had been fully reclined so that “it was as far back as it could go.”
“What happened then,” the prosecutor asked, and Mr Niche told the lawyer “initially, nothing.”
“Holly got out and into her own car and I started to reverse out but I stopped and got out of the car. I couldn’t see into his car so I stood on the sill and when I looked into his car, I could see that he was masturbating,” he told the court.
“His seat was back, trousers open, his penis was erect and he was masturbating. When I stopped the car, he didn’t even flinch,” Mr Neish testified, adding that after he took a short video of the defendant’s vehicle, he reported the matter to the police.
Ms Graham gave similar evidence that when she looked into McCaughey’s car, he was “staring at her” and she “could see that his arm was moving and he was masturbating.”
Giving evidence on his own behalf, McCaughey denied the allegations against him and claimed the two prosecution witnesses were mistaken.
He claimed that both front seats had been fully reclined and that his wife had been in the car with him as the pair were having a “difficult conversation.”
McCaughey, from the Drumcill Road in Lisburn, suggested that because both seats had been reclined, that was why neither Ms Graham nor Mr Neish had seen her.
He further claimed that in addition to them being mistaken, the witnesses had been “kissing and cuddling” with each other, claims which both of them refuted in their testimony.
In delivering his verdict, Judge Mateer emphasised that given the way the two prosecution witnesses were cross-examined, the defence was that they were not just mistaken but “that they are actively telling lies.”
The judge told the court that in his view, the evidence of the prosecution witnesses “is reliable, is consistent and has the ring of truth.”
In contrast, Judge Mateer added, “I do not accept Mr McCaughey’s evidence in the slightest – I consider that he was lying to me from the witness box.”
Accordingly, McCaughey was convicted on the charge of exposure in that he “intentionally exposed your genitals intending that someone would see them and be caused alarm or distress.”
Adjourning the case to allow time for the Probation Board to compile a pre-sentence report, the judge freed McCaughey on bail until 20 November.
He warned the defendant that whether he is compelled to sign the police sex offenders register, “will depend on the sentence imposed.”