A REPORTING restriction has been imposed on identifying a man caught masturbating in the car park of Letterkenny’s McDonald’s restaurant.

The 45-year-old appeared before Letterkenny District Court yesterday where he was told he was “very lucky” not to be going straight to jail.

The case was heard behind closed doors and Judge Raymond Finnegan ruled that the accused, who made full admissions to two charges of masturbating, cannot be named.

The man came to Garda attention on May 11, 2017 when a walker reported a suspicious male parked at Aileach Road in Buncrana.

Gardaí found him in the front seat rubbing his penis with his trousers and boxer shorts around his ankles.

A breathalyser test was carried out and the defendant was arrested for being drunk in charge of a vehicle.

He came to police attention in similar circumstances on March 28 this year when at 9pm gardaí received a call about a man in a Volkswagen Caddy exposing himself and masturbating within sight of the public in the car of Letterkenny’s McDonald’s outlet.

When confronted the accused admitted the offence and said he was homeless and living in the van.

Representing the defendant in court was solicitor Patsy Gallagher.

He said his client had been through a “dark number of years” whereby he had been working but had then lost his job due to Covid.

Mr Gallagher said he had found work outside Donegal and has no intention of returning to the county.

“Gardaí have stopped him in Galway and in Dublin to check up on him and have found no offending of any nature.

“He understands his difficulties and is dealing with those. He also realises that over the years at certain times when he had a lot of time to himself his mind began to wander.

“When occupied he is fine and when there is structure there, it is working.”

For drink driving Judge Raymond Finnegan fined the defendant €200 and put him off the road for three years.

For the more serious matters he was handed a five-month jail term suspended for 18 months on the grounds that he does not reoffend.

“You are a very lucky man that you are not going to prison,” Judge Finnegan added.