A FORMER care home worker struck off for sex offences in a Dunfermline street has now been jailed.

Neil Cowan was seen masturbating in the street, twice within four days, near the Amazon plant in Dunfermline in the early hours of the morning.

Cowan, from Kelty, later told police he had been having problems with his “loose-fitting trousers” which kept falling down.

At the time, he was employed as a care assistant in Cowdenbeath.

Cowan avoided a jail term initially but is now behind bars for breaching his community payback order.

The incidents, in the early hours of the morning, were witnessed by a milk delivery worker and an employee leaving the Amazon warehouse.

One witness videoed Cowan and passed it on to the police.

He had been put on supervision but was caught being dishonest to his supervising officer.

Defence solicitor Ian Beatson said: “He hasn’t been honest during his supervision. He hasn’t co-operated and there’s been a lack of frankness.”

A curfew was imposed previously after it was discovered Cowan had been “meeting up with individuals in remote locations”, said the solicitor.

Sheriff Susan Duff told Cowan: “This order has been ongoing for a year and there have always been problems throughout that time with your frankness.”

She revoked the community payback order and jailed Cowan for eight months.

At the original sentencing just under a year ago, the court was told Cowan was under stress and was “using sex as a form of release from his problems”.

Cowan, 34, of Cocklaw Street, had admitted that on June 16 last year, at Sandpiper Drive, Dunfermline, he intentionally engaged in a sexual activity in the presence of a man by pulling down his trousers, exposed his penis and masturbated.

He also admitted that on June 20, in the same street, he repeated the offence in the presence of another man.

Sheriff Kevin Veal said at that time: “He went to the location in the early hours of the morning. It wasn’t a spur-of-the moment thing.”

At that time, Mr Beatson said his client had been under stress as a care home worker at the time.

“A resident he’d been close to had passed away,” he went on.

“It seems as if he was using sex as a form of release from his problems, a relief and coping mechanism, which isn’t appropriate,” added the solicitor.

Sheriff Veal had imposed a community payback order with three years of supervision. He also put Cowan on the sex offenders' register for three years.