King’s Lynn man Garry Bainbridge masturbated in front of 16-year-old girls

A man who masturbated in front of two teenage girls has been handed a community order.

At around 6pm on August 19, 2023, the two teens had walked from McDonald’s on Lynn’s Hardwick retail park to a bus stop in South Lynn.

They spotted Garry Bainbridge, 30, of Hillen Road, looking at them from his home while opening and closing his curtains. He was wearing nothing but underwear.

He then removed them and began to masturbate in front of the girls, pointing and laughing at them while doing so.

He pulled the curtains closed - but when a bus drove by the girls without stopping for them, he opened them again and resumed masturbating.

The girls were forced to leave the area, and Bainbridge was later arrested.

He originally denied a charge of intentionally exposing his genitals, and appeared for a trial in January. However, part-way through proceedings - after one of the girls had already given evidence - he changed his plea to guilty.

Bainbridge appeared at Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to be sentenced, with the court hearing he had ten previous convictions - including for exposure in 2015.

Magistrates handed him an 18-month community order which will see him complete an accredited programme, ten rehabilitation activity days, and 150 hours of unpaid work.

He will also pay £625 in court costs and a £114 victim surcharge, and has been placed on licence - meaning he has to regularly report to Lynn’s police station so officers have an idea of his whereabouts and activities.

In mitigation, solicitor Charlotte Winchester had said: “He finds it very difficult to explain why this offence was committed.”

She described it as a “heat of the moment” impulse.

“He very much regrets his behaviour,” she added.

“He is sorry for the distress that was caused, and he can see the effect this would have had on these two girls.”