A DRUNK, foul- mouthed racist who exposed himself in a petrol station shop in Cross Hills in front of a member of staff and customers in March last year, has escaped a prison sentence.

Christopher Burridge, 26, of Steeton, was told by Skipton magistrates the community sentence with 250 hours unpaid work was a ‘direct alternative’ to prison. He will also have to sign onto the sex offenders register for five years.

Burridge pulled open his trousers in front of a male member of staff at the mini-market in Station Road on March 16, last year, at just after 10pm and asked ‘do you like it’ and ‘do you want to check it’. He also swore at the member of staff, using racially offensive language, and told him to ‘come outside’, in front of three other customers.

In a victim statement, read out in court on Friday,  the staff member, who activated his personal attack alarm, said he had been left ‘worried and nervous’ had been shaking afterwards and had thought he might have been attacked.

He also felt insulted by the racist language and added that the three or four other people in the shop at the time would also have seen Burridge exposing himself and would have been embarrassed by what they had seen.

Burridge was taken off the premises by friends who were with him at the time, and before police arrived, but later arrested at Cross Hills Social Club where there had been reports of a disturbance, the court was told at a previous hearing. He had four previous convictions for six offences, including a prison sentence for grievous bodily harm in 2017.

When questioned by police about the incident in Cross Hills, he declined to answer. He initially denied the charges against him but on the day of his trial, he changed his pleas to guilty.

In mitigation, Erica Topham said it had been an extremely stupid act which Burridge did not seek to minimise. He could not remember much about it as he had had too much to drink, she said.

“He accepts this was an extremely unpleasant thing for this victim to go through,” said Ms Topham.

Burridge, a drystone waller of Elmsley Street, Steeton, admitted exposure and racially aggravated intentional harassment. He was told by magistrates that it was a nasty matter and that not only had he caused racially aggravated distress to someone who was carrying out his work, but that he had done it in front of others. He was given an 18 month community order with 250 hours unpaid work - 25 related to the racist language- and up to 20 rehabilitation requirement activity days. He will also have to pay costs of £250 and a surcharge of £90.