Man claimed he was 'warming up his chicken' in sauna after becoming 'aroused by pool jets'

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A man who was caught with his pants down in a sauna claimed to have been 'warming up his chicken', a court has heard. Xin Zhang had been for a swim at a university leisure centre when a woman noticed him staring at her from the sauna.

The 59-year-old had shorts 'down to his knees' and was touching himself at the time, it is claimed. Prosecutors said he had become 'aroused' by the feeling of the pool jets on his bottom.

He was confronted by staff at Tom Husband Leisure Centre at Salford University who told him he was banned and alerted the police. Zhang was charged and pleaded guilty to a charge of outraging public decency at an earlier hearing.

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He admitted touching his private parts but denied he was masturbating or that it was a 'sexual act.' In his basis of plea, Zhang said he was 'cold from having been swimming and put his hands into his shorts to warm his penis,' MEN reports.

On Monday, February 3, he appeared in Bolton Magistrates' Court for a trial of issue, where magistrates were asked to rule if they accepted his version of events. Following a hearing lasting several hours, the bench said there were 'inconsistencies' with his account as they ruled that 'the act was for sexual gratification.' He will be sentenced in June with 'all options on the table.'

Zhang, who has lived in the UK for more than 20 years, visited the leisure centre five to six times a week. He had been a member for around a decade, the court heard.

He said he had been in the pool for almost an hour on a day in March 2023 and had swam more than 1,000 metres when he went to the sauna. He was then seen 'with his shorts down rubbing his behind on the bench and touching himself in the sauna whilst staring at (a woman) through the glass window of the sauna', prosecutor Emilee Creasey said.

Speaking to the court, the woman said: "He stood up. He was looking at me. He pulled his pants down just below the knee. He grabbed his penis and I could see his hands they were going up and down. I thought 'oh my god.'"

He carried on for 'three to four minutes' before a male staff member went in. The woman added: "I don't know if it was towards me, I don't know if it was or it wasn't". She added that she was '100 per cent sure' it was sexual.

The woman continued: "I don't understand what else you would be doing like that? If he could offer me an explanation, one that makes sense."

Speaking about Zhang's claim he was 'very cold', she said: "He was in a sauna. It was a hundred degrees." She said the ordeal made her feel "angry, vulnerable, I would say."

The staff member who went in to confront him said he didn't see the act. He added that the woman looked 'flustered' and 'pale in the face' and told him: "I think he's having a ****."

The man said: "I went through the glass door and I said 'what are you doing?'" He said Zhang had one hand over his privates and held the other up as he said 'No, no, no' and 'it's not what you think it was.'

"It was a shock to be honest, to see someone doing that in the sauna, having their shorts down" the staff member said.

He said Zhang had 'done some weird stuff previously' including 'pulling his shorts down' near 'air vents at the side of the pool' but that management had said previously they 'didn't have enough evidence to pull him in and to talk to him about it.'

He said: "It's not the right place to have your hands on your private parts. It is a public area, kids swim there, it's not appropriate to do so."

A member of management who spoke to him told the court that when he asked Zhang about what he was doing he said 'my chicken' and 'gestured with his hands.' He said he took that to mean that he was 'adjusting himself.'

Zhang, of Foundry Lane in Manchester, told police that 'chicken is what I call my genitals.' He told officers in his interview: "I was adjusting the inner layer of my shorts, because of my eczema I have them loose.'

In his basis of plea given at court, Zhang said he was 'warming' his privates as he was cold. He 'denied he was masturbating but conceded it may have looked like that for anyone watching,' the court was told.

Giving evidence himself, he said that he lay down in the sauna as he was 'cold, tired and hungry.' Speaking through a Mandarin interpreter, he claimed it was customers who set the temperature in the sauna.

He said: "I sat there for about seven or eight minutes and I still felt cold. "I realised my waistband had been tied too tight and I loosened my waistband."

He said after looking at his privates, he feared that 'there might be some kind of illness causing a problem.' "I was trying to warm it up" he said before he heard 'knocking on the windows.'

"I tried to explain to the person it's not what they saw. I also said 'no'." Samuel Hinds, defending, said: "Mr Zhang has accepted his behaviour on that day to be unacceptable but strongly denies sexual undertones.

"He states he was warming his genitals up. He accepts whilst not the place to do so, there was nothing more to his actions."

However Chair of the bench Rachel Mesrie, said: "All four prosecution witnesses provided consistent, corroborating evidence. Mr Zhang's evidence was not consistent. He has provided three different accounts of his actions providing inconsistencies. We find the act was for sexual gratification"

They ordered a pre-sentence report ahead of the sentencing of Zhang on June 24. The maximum sentence for the offence is six months in prison with Ms Mersie saying: "All options are on the table."