Care home worker blamed public sex act on ‘Covid stress’

Acare home worker caught pleasuring himself in public claimed he was relieving stress caused by working through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Neil Cowan was caught on camera twice carrying out solo sex acts near Dunfermline’s Amazon warehouse in the early hours of the morning.

The town’s sheriff court heard yesterday that Cowan’s place of work had lost several residents in the health crisis.

Solicitor Ian Beatson, defending, said: “He was working in a care home that was affected by Covid.

“Just prior to this incident a resident he had been very close to passed away and this seems to have had an effect on him.”

He said Cowan, of Cocklaw Street, Kelty, who pleaded guilty, considered such acts to be “relief” in “times of stress”.

He said: “He uses sex as some relief from his problems.”

However, Sheriff Kevin Veal considered the act to be a premeditated one.

He said: “He’s gone there deliberately in the early hours of the morning when he knew there would be people about.

“It was almost deliberately planned and not done on the spur of the moment. That’s what troubles me.”

Cowan was placed on a supervision order for three years, with conditions including taking part in a sex offenders’ rehabilitation scheme and only staying in accommodation approved by his supervising officer.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for the same period.

The court had previously heard how the 33-year-old claimed to police his trousers were loose and had fallen down.

He was spotted on two separate occasions – the first time by a delivery driver at 2.20am on June 16 and just four days later by a man leaving the Amazon Warehouse on Sandpiper Drive at 3.30am.

Fiscal depute Azrah Yousaf said the dairy driver was taking milk to a nearby Starbucks when he spotted Cowan.

“He was naked from the waist down but did not appear to be intoxicated.

“As (the driver) drove past, it became clear to him that the accused was masturbating.

“He did not make eye contact with the accused but the accused was aware of the lorry and continued.”

The “shocked and disgusted” driver called police.

Four days later an Amazon nightshift worker was leaving the complex and spotted Cowan.

Ms Yousaf said: “The accused had his trousers partly down, exposing his buttocks and masturbating.

“He drove past and went round a roundabout and returned and saw the accused was still doing the act.

“He was able to take mobile phone footage of the incident.”

The court heard the accused was traced by police on June 21.

“When charged he replied: ‘My trousers are loose fitting and they may have fallen down. I’m sorry’.”

CAUGHT IN THE ACT: Neil Cowan was captured on camera twice near Amazon’s Dunfermline warehouse in June.