THE trial has begun in the Crown Court in Derry of a 64-year-old man charged with committing a sex act on himself in front a female worker in a Chinese takeaway restaurant last year.
Michael Joseph Mullan from Keerin Road in Cookstown has denied committing the offense in the Golden House takeaway in St Patricks’s Street. Draperstown, on April 15 of last year.
CCTV footage of the alleged incident was shown to the court and a barrister for the Public Prosecution Service said the female member of staff who had served the defendant was so concerned at his behavior that she photographed him on her phone during the incident.
The barrister said the CCTV footage showed the defendant sitting on the windowsill and unzipping his trousers before performing the sex act as he held his takeaway food.
Mr. Mullan is charged with committing an act of a lewd, disgusting and obscene nature and of outraging public decency by exposing himself and performing a sex act as he sat eating his meal on the windowsill inside the restaurant.
A prosecution barrister also said that the defendant is alleged to have made an offensive comment to the woman before asking for her hand.
The defendant was arrested and interviewed the day after the incident occurred and immediately denied the allegations. Two months later he was interviewed for the second time and shown the CCTV footage of his own behavior. He maintained his not guilty defense.
