A pervert who flashed at two sisters and performed a sex act as they walked past his home has been spared jail.

Luke Bailey was sentenced to a community order with 200 hours' unpaid work.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the girls were visiting a relative in Herne Bay on May 17 last year when they heard banging as if somebody was trying to get their attention.

They looked around and saw a man standing at a bay window in Tyndale Road wearing only a T-shirt.

They could see he was smiling or laughing as he performed a sex act at the window of the ground floor flat.

"It was a kind of sinister look on his face like he was enjoying making us look uncomfortable..." - victim of Luke Bailey

Prosecutor Dominic Connolly said the older girl was "revolted, scared and embarrassed" and quickly ushered her sister away. They went to the relative's home and the police were called.

When officers went to 24-year-old Bailey's flat, he claimed he did not intentionally expose himself. He said he was totally naked when he went into his bedroom to close a window.

"I pulled back the curtain and when I saw the girls I was embarrassed," he said. He denied engaging in a sex act or smiling.

The older girl told the jury: "I heard two or three knocks on the window. What caught my attention was somebody standing in the window. He was wearing a grey T-shirt and no clothing on his bottom half.

"My eyes were drawn down. I noticed the expression on his face. He was laughing or smiling. It was a kind of sinister look on his face like he was enjoying making us look uncomfortable.

"I was worried my younger sister would see what was going on. Obviously, I was very shocked. I was afraid he might come out of the house.

"I wanted to get away. We were quite shaken up."

Bailey, now of Bury, Lancashire, denied indecent exposure but was convicted.

Judge David Griffith-Jones QC told him: "You intended to shock them. It must have been a shocking incident for them. You remain in denial."

He added: "Your absurd account was rightly discounted by the jury."