A serial flasher has been jailed after he performed a sex act in front of shocked female train passengers.

Jamie Stevens had already racked up a string of previous convictions for similar offences when he boarded a South East train from Strood to Tonbridge on August 18 last year.

The 31-year-old sat opposite a woman staring at her, making her feel uncomfortable. She then realised he was performing a sex act.

“She was scared, disgusted and horrified,” said Recorder Sarah Elliott QC.

Stevens, formerly of Hildenborough Crescent, Allington, then sat down close to another woman and and gave a repeat performance.

He was on a train from Sheerness to London’s Victoria on September 27 when he sat opposite a woman and committed the offence again while staring at her.

He admitted two offences of outraging public decency and one of exposure.

Jailing Stevens for 16 months, Recorder Elliott said: “It is apparent you are becoming a persistent sex offender. You have an unenviable criminal record which includes violent behaviour, Class A drugs and breaches of court orders.”

He first started exposing himself in 2012 and committed more offences in 2014 and 2015.

Recorder Elliott said his offending escalated in 2017 when he sexually assaulted a woman in a shop.

He was jailed for 18 months in January this year for breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) by going into a garden in Chatham Road, Maidstone, and looking at a woman.

A further SHPO was made for 10 years which bans Stevens from travelling on the top deck of buses and train unless giving full details to Maidstone police. He has already signed on the sex offenders’ register.