UPDATE: |Dad jailed after sniffing sex toy in Go Outdoor’s prank gone wrong News

The staff member was ‘incredibly distressed and tearful’

A dad who was jailed after sniffing a sex toy in Go Outdoors in a stag do prank gone wrong has had his sentence reduced. Ricki Hughes presented the toy to a member of staff at the shop inside a shoe box while apparently seeking a refund on footwear, telling her: “It’s just banter.”

But the till worker was left in tears after being disturbed by what his solicitor said were “Benny Hill and Candid Camera”-style actions, the ECHO reports. The wannabe prankster was meanwhile facing the prospect of remaining in prison for more than a year after the sorry episode resulted in him being convicted of a criminal offence.

Liverpool Crown Court heard this afternoon, Thursday, that Hughes, of Laburnum Grove in Runcorn, previously pleaded guilty to one count of using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour causing harassment, alarm or distress during an appearance at Warrington Magistrates’ Court on March 19 this year.

This led to the 41-year-old receiving an immediate imprisonment of 18 weeks, a sentence which he sought to appeal during today’s hearing.

Lucy Moran, prosecuting, described how the defendant had entered the branch of Go Outdoors in Warrington town centre at around 2.30pm on January 4 this year and presented staff member Louise Riley with a shoe box while requesting a refund.

She thereafter discovered that this box contained both a pair of shoes and a “flesh toned sex toy”.

Ms Riley then noticed that a second man was standing behind Hughes and filming the interaction on his mobile phone, at which stage she “realised that she was the victim of a prank”.

She was left feeling “humiliated” as a result and asked the customer to leave as he was “making people feel uncomfortable”.

Hughes however told her “it’s just a joke, it’s just banter” before taking the sex toy out of the box and “inviting Ms Riley to hold it”, then holding the item to his nose and sniffing it.

The complainant, a student teacher, thereafter became “incredibly distressed and tearful” and had to be escorted into an office by colleagues after “bursting into tears”.

The culprit was subsequently identified following a CCTV appeal by Cheshire Police. Hughes was said to have “giggled throughout” a subsequent voluntary interview with detectives.

His criminal record shows a total of 30 previous convictions for 69 offences, including drug matters, breaching community orders and failing to surrender to bail.

Julian Nutter, defending, told the court: “It is with some trepidation that I stand and appear before Mr Recorder Cox and two justices in a case of this sort.

“We still have a sense of humour in this country. There is a tension which stretches between a modern interpretation about how people should behave and a very traditional one.

“Those of us old enough to remember the programmes of Benny Hill and Candid Camera, when there was television footage galore of people being put in surprising and shocking situations, will remember a very different world, in which jokes would be made at people’s expense. That is wholly inconsistent with the ‘I’m offended’ culture of the modern age.

“It is bound to be the case within that tension that somebody who belongs to the earlier tradition gets it wrong, and somebody who belongs to the modern tradition gets it right.

He finds himself, as a result of this, with a relatively substantial immediate custodial sentence which has had a powerful impact on him.

“He has no previous convictions for similar offences. He has a conviction for which he was on licence for a very different sort of offence, which has resulted in him being recalled to prison on that licence. He is not due to be released until the middle of next year as a result of this.

“That in itself has had immediate consequences for him. It has to be remembered, as was shown by his uncontrollable humour in interview, that he saw all of this as a joke, but he showed remorse when he realised that he had upset somebody.

“He has got a family. He is a carer for his son, who suffers from Tourette’s. He is now, whatever happens today, recalled to prison until July 2026. He deeply regrets what he has done and regrets offending this lady, but I cannot overstate that this was borne out of a joke.

“The joke arose out of it being somebody’s stag do at the time. Somebody else came up with the idea of a challenge. That is what men do. Anybody walking the streets of Liverpool on a Friday or Saturday will see people dressed as cockerels or half naked on stag and hen dos. This has plainly got out of hand. It was intended to be funny.

“He has served six weeks, which is the equivalent of a 12-week sentence. In my respectful submission, a 12-week sentence would have been too much as an immediate sentence of imprisonment.

“This is a case in which you could properly adjust the sentence to that which reflects the time served. He will remain where he is. He has got to take other steps to deal with that. I apologise for taking the bull by the horns, but this case is what it is.”

Appearing in the dock wearing a grey Nike t-shirt and sporting a shaved head, Hughes nodded and said “thank you” as his sentence was reduced to one of 12 weeks. He was previously told to pay court costs of £85 plus a £154 victim surcharge by magistrates.

Recorder Carwyn Cox told him following his appeal: “In our view, this incident was clearly distasteful and ill thought through. You thought it to be a joke, when it was really not a joke for those women who were trying to do their jobs. To try to equate this to the comedies of years gone by does not cut it. There was obviously no need for this behaviour to have taken place on this day.

“We do accept that the decision of the lower court was wrong, but only to a degree. There are previous convictions relating to your failure to comply with previous court orders. This was an offence committed on licence, for which you have been recalled to prison.

“We find that there is very little by way of mitigation. The acceptance we have opposite someone still laughing does not smack of significant remorse. This was clearly something that you and your group thought was going to be funny, but it was far from it.”