Pervert aerosol addict masturbated in garden of horrified Leeds women
A pervert nicknamed “The Lynx Thief” due to his addiction to solvents has been jailed after he masturbated towards three horrified women after he entered their garden.
Steven Betts was so intoxicated from sniffing aerosols that he claimed he can’t recall anything of the incident in the Hyde Park area.
The 48-year-old was handed a two-year sentence at Leeds Crown Court this week with Judge Robin Mairs telling him: “It’s a worrying turn of events that you have started offending sexually.”
Betts is known for his persistent thefts of aerosol cans from shops to feed his habit, and was handed a five-year criminal behaviour order (CBO) in 2023, banning him from Leeds city centre.
Appearing in court this week over a video link from HMP Leeds, he admitted charges of indecent exposure and a case of sexual assault, after he touched a nurse trying to assess him in prison.
He also admitted two counts of thefts of aerosols from a shop, which triggered two breaches of his CBO.
Prosecutor Timothy Jacobs said Betts entered Co-op on Burley Street on May 27 and tried to steal 12 cans of deodorant, but he was intercepted by a security guard.
He managed to get away with two cans and flee the shop.
On June 3 he entered the same shop and took four cans of deodorant and left without paying.
On the same day he walked into the garden of the property in Hyde Park where three females live and approached the door which they had left open.
He asked to come in but they said no. He told one of them she looked nice and began to rub his crotch.
They shut the door but he then dropped his trousers and began masturbating while looking at the women through the window.
He continued for around three minutes as they dialled 999. He was arrested a short time later and was found to be carrying 12 cans of aerosol.
Held on remand, Betts then sexually assaulted a nurse examining him. He touched her arm, and when she told him to stop, he began touching her thigh over clothing.
Mitigating, James Littlehales said: “The background is his long-standing addiction.”
He said he was first addicted to drugs and due to a schizophrenia diagnosis, spent 15 years in a psychiatric unit.
Having been released, he said Betts has spent the last four years addicted to solvents.
Mr Littlehales added: “It’s his drug of choice. He would steal them to feed his own habit.
“He has no recollection of the sexual offences. He accepts that a custodial sentence is inevitable today.”
Betts, of no fixed address, was given a two-year jail sentence, put on the sex offender register for five years and given an amended five-year extension to his CBO.