A BOY has admitted being responsible for a series of exposure incidents on a countryside walkway.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, but is of the Warrington area, flashed a number of people on the Trans Pennine Trail in Lymm.

Cheshire Police issued a public appeal last summer for information in a bid to catch the person responsible.

The youth was later charged in February with three counts of exposure.

He appeared before Warrington Magistrates’ Court to stand trial last week, but he changed his pleas to guilty that same day and was subsequently sentenced.

At 5.30pm on Sunday, June 12, Cheshire Police confirmed officers were called to reports of a male suspect exposing himself in the Lymm area.

The caller reported that at around 4.15pm that day, they witnessed a man exposing his genitals between Heatley Mere and Mill Lane.

There were two other incidents reported to the police in the vicinity.

The charges state that the youth ‘intentionally exposed his genitals, intending that someone would see them and be caused alarm or distress’.

After changing his plea from not guilty to guilty, the boy was sentenced by magistrates to a 10-month youth referral order.

A referral order is the community sentence most often used by the courts when dealing with 10 to 17-year-olds, particularly for first time offenders who plead guilty.

They require that an offender must agree a contract of rehabilitative and restorative elements to be completed within the sentence.

Referral orders can include reparation or restitution to the victim, for example, repairing any damage caused or making financial recompense, as well as undertaking a programme of interventions and activities to address their offending behaviour.

In addition, the court ordered that he pay costs to the Crown Prosecution Service of £200 and a surcharge to fund victim services of £22.