A woman has been sentenced for outraging public decency after having sex in full view of people socialising in Liverpool city centre.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that Kelly Cousins, 35, of now Merton Road in Bootle, was seen by several people having sex in Concert Square on 1 August 2022. 

Images of the incident were later circulated on social media and shared by Ms Cousins. Several people who saw the posts complained and Ms Cousins was arrested at her home address on August 4. 

She was eventually charged with an act outraging public decency and on 20 September 2022, at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court she pleaded guilty.

Today (8 November 2022) at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court, she was given a ten-week jail term, suspended for 12 months. She must do 40 hours of unpaid work, 20 days of a rehabilitation activity, pay £120 costs and £154 victim surcharge.

Associate Prosecutor Andrew Page of CPS Mersey Cheshire said: “The behaviour that took place in Concert Square that night was genuinely outrageous. Concert Square attracts a lot of tourists and the incident could well have damaged the reputation of the city in some people’s eyes.

“Whatever Ms Cousins and the man involved thought they were up to, it was not the place. The man involved in this incident was equally culpable and is being pursued by the police.

“Ms Cousins chose to further share posts of the incident on her own social media – these posts and others led to the complaints that have landed her in court.

“There are standards of public decency that every civilised society needs to maintain and the behaviour of these two people on that night was in direct contravention of those standards and, indeed, the law.”

A warrant was  issued for the arrest of the man allegedly shown in the video, 23-year-old Joe Firby, after he failed to attend court in September. 

The man from Gateshead has also been charged with outraging public decency.