A serial sex offender has been jailed for 18 months for exposing himself to women in Eastbourne.

Ricky Wilson, 32, hid behind bushes in an Eastbourne park and waited for women to walk past before exposing himself and acting obscenely.

His victims were unable to identify him because they only saw the lower half of his body behind foliage.

But he was finally caught after approaching a plain-clothes WPC with his trousers undone. She arrested him.

Jonathan Hall, prosecuting, told Lewes Crown Court how Wilson, of Seaside Road, Eastbourne, struck in January.

He said: "A veterinary nurse was walking along St Anne's Road, was aware of rustling from behind bushes and looked back and saw the lower half of a man, his trousers round his ankles."

Next day she asked a friend to come to the same spot and again saw the man.

She was concerned because the park is used by a lot of children, said Mr Hall.

"The following week a plain-clothes WPC saw the defendant, who approached her fiddling with his belt, and she could see his trousers were undone."

The officer chased and arrested him and he said "I'm so sorry" before being taken to the police station where he said he had done the same thing the week before.

He admitted committing the offences when women walked by.

Wilson, who has a string of similar convictions dating back to 1991, pleaded guilty to a charge of outraging public decency and asked for a similar offence to be taken into consideration.

Last October he was given a 15-month prison sentence suspended for two years for four similar offences.

Judge Charles Kemp ordered he serve the suspended sentence plus a further three months for the new offence.