Former Wes Streeting aide avoids jail after indecent exposure

An ex-London councillor who previously worked as one of Wes Streeting’s top aides has been handed a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to indecent exposure.

Sam Gould, 33, stepped down from Redbridge Council in north-east London last month after admitting two counts of the crime.

He was seen masturbating in a parked car by a 13-year-old girl last month, before he left the car and started following her.

The young girl tried to hide and banged on doors asking for help, prosecutors told the court.

According to the Sun, the teenager’s mother said she was scared to leave the house after the incident.

In a separate incident, he was seen by a woman masturbating in a Mini Cooper with its windows rolled down on February 9, the court heard.

Streeting, the health secretary, said there were ‘no words to express my horror that a mother and her daughter have been put through this ordeal’.

He added: ‘As soon as I was made aware of his arrest he was suspended, and as soon as the guilty plea was entered I took immediate steps to sack him through official HR processes.

‘There are no excuses for his appalling behaviour.’

Redbridge Council leader Kam Rai said he was shocked by the ‘inexcusable betrayal of [Gould’s] residents’.

At Barkingside Magistrates’ Court this afternoon, Gould was sentenced to 22 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years.

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