A DRUNKEN man who exposed himself to a shop worker after a party at a church has been given a four-month curfew.

Roy Thomas, a 51-year-old married father-of-one, had been attending a party at Our Lady of Lourdes RC church in Plodder Lane, Farnworth, where he had drunk whisky and vodka.

At 3.15pm he left the church and walked along Plodder Lane until he stopped outside a shop where his victim, a 42-year-old shop worker, was inside getting ready to close for the day.

She told Bolton Magistrates Court how she watched him staggering around outside the premises.

Then he lifted up the mundi, a traditional south Indian sarong-type garment he was wearing, and exposed himself while grinning at her through the shop window.

When he started urinating against the wall, banging on the door and shoulder barging the window she called police and he was arrested.

Thomas was found guilty of indecent exposure after a trial earlier this month.

He had denied the offence, which was committed on September 7 last year, claiming his victim had been mistaken.

But the woman told the court she was in no doubt she had seen Thomas expose his genitals to her, swaying his hips, before urinating against a wall.

In a statement, read out at the sentencing hearing, the victim said she had been "unnerved" and "shocked".

"It was totally out of order. He needs to be taught that this is not acceptable and will not be tolerated," she added.

Krystal Savoie, defending, said Thomas, who does not usually drink to excess, could not recall what had happened and so had denied committing the offence.

"He has always had a deep rooted belief that this is not something he would have done," she said.

"This would appear to be entirely out of character."

She added that there was no sexual motive to the crime and he is not a danger to the community.

Thomas, of Begonia Avenue, Farnworth, was sentenced to a four-month 9pm to 7am curfew and was ordered to pay £75 compensation, £550 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

Steve Woodman, prosecuting, requested magistrates make an order banning Thomas from going near the shop.

But magistrate Ms Rahila Akram said: "We do believe it was an isolated incident so it is not necessary or proportionate to make a restraining order."