TWO men filmed engaged in a sex act at a busy shopping centre have been jailed.

The men were arrested after video of the sex act went viral with a caption reading Welcome to Worthing.

Richard Dawkins from the town and James Pannel of Shoreham were jailed for 16 weeks each after a magistrate said they had shown no regard for the shock and distress their actions would have caused members of the public.

Dawkins and Pannel were filmed around 6pm on April 23 this year.

The pair were arrested the following day.

Dawkins gave a no-comment interview.

Pannel, after he was shown mobile phone footage of the incident, told Sussex Police: “It definitely looks like me.”

Brighton magistrates heard a description of the offence from a young woman who had been waiting for a bus at the Guildbourne centre in Worthing.

Prosecutor Ruth Sherlock told the court an eye witness was at a bus stop when she said she saw a man on the opposite side of road, with his trousers down.

“I thought he was urinating on a man on the bench’, she said.

“I got my phone out and started to call police’, she said.

The Argus:

“I realised the man standing was receiving oral sex from the man on the bench’.

“I saw his head moving in a manner I would describe as sexual’, she said.

“Then he moved his head and used his hand’, she said.”

Pannel, 52, of Mansell Road, Shoreham, was jailed for 16 weeks after admitting outraging public decency by performing oral sex, with another three weeks concurrent for a previous offence.

Louise Walls, defending him said: “It’s no secret he has a significant issue with alcohol.

“On this day he drank 1.5 litres of vodka.

“He wasn’t aware of what he had done until the next day when he returned to the shopping centre and people started calling him all the names under the sun. He still has no recollection.

“He was shocked and disgusted with his behaviour on that day,” Ms Walls said.

Dawkins, 49, of Northbrook Road, Worthing, was jailed for 16 weeks after admitting outraging public decency by receiving oral sex.

Mark Rogers for Dawkins said he had also been under the influence of alcohol.

“He got caught up in the moment and deeply regrets it,” Mr Rogers said.

Both were ordered to pay £115 victim surcharges. Magistrate Ian Goodwin told Dawkins: “The offence was not pleasant.”

He told Pannel he had shown a complete disregard for any shock or distress he could have caused.