A topless street drinker who held up traffic then shouted obscenities at police officers has been found guilty of breaching a criminal behaviour order.

José Phillips, 60, was also said to have been ‘dancing’ in Walton Street, Jericho, with his trousers around his knees and exposing himself.

The bearded Spaniard told Oxford Magistrates’ Court that he thought swearing between drinkers and police was ‘understandable’ and, asked why he’d been topless when the two police community support officers went to speak to him, said: “It’s summer and I’m Spanish and I like a bit of sunshine on my skin.”

He was found guilty of breaching his criminal behaviour order – imposed in 2017 – by making sexually explicit comments to the PCSOs and stopping traffic.

But chairman of the bench Gillian Holliday said the JPs did not find proved allegations that Phillips had his trousers down and was exposing himself.

Remanding him into custody ahead of a hearing on September 27, she thanked Phillips’ social workers for attending the trial. “You can take it from the court that this is a case that just needs something. This gentleman needs some accommodation and safety.”

The court was told that a barman at Brasserie Blanc saw Phillips in the middle of Walton Street on the afternoon of August 7. He was said to have been dancing with his trousers around his knees, deliberately holding up traffic.

The police were called and two PCSOs found him sitting at a table outside Italian restaurant Mamma Mia, drinking beer from a glass.

In video footage taken on one of the officers' body-worn camera, the PCSOs could be heard speaking to him about a party and at one point encouraging him to put his jacket on as it had started raining. Phillips complied with the request but peppered his conversation with expletives and boasted that he ‘liked’ to perform a sex act on himself.

Giving evidence in his own defence, Phillips said he suffered from various health conditions including brain damage, early-onset dementia and cancer. “I’m not right in the head,” he told the magistrates.

He claimed he’d been crossing the road rather than deliberately holding up traffic and said he’d been in Jericho as he used to live nearby and liked to return to the area. He attended the church ‘round the corner’ and was well-known by the vicar.

Phillips said he’d been doing ‘nothing wrong’. The defendant, who accused the barman who gave evidence about seeing him in the street of lying, said he was ‘not a nasty man’.

He told prosecutor Richard Atkins: “I tend to wear police [tracksuits] – this s*** - that they give you, which isn’t exactly the right size most of the time.”

Would you accept your trousers can fall down? Mr Atkins asked. Phillips replied: “They could fall down, but they normally don’t. If I’ve got a can of beer in one hand and a bag in the other I’m going to pull them up to the best of my abilities.” He said he was old enough to go around without his trousers down.

Closing the defence case to the bench, Phillips’ advocate Angela Porter suggested her client may have had a reasonable excuse for the criminal behaviour order breaches.

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