Parents performed a citizen's arrest on a man caught pleasuring himself while watching children in a park, a court has heard.
The alarm was raised by a passing delivery man who spotted Rene Cervenak peeping through a hedge. The defendant tried to lie his way out of the situation by claiming he was having a pee. After being detained by parents, the defendant was marched to the nearest police station.
Incident at Hamadryad Park
Denise Osei, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court that the incident happened in the summer of 2025 at Hamadryad Park in Cardiff Bay at a time when young children were playing in the green space. She said a passing delivery rider saw a man - later identified as Cervenak - looking into the park through a hole in a hedge while masturbating his penis outside his trousers.
The courier alerted adults in the park to the behaviour, and the rider and a number of parents then confronted the defendant. The court heard Cervenak said he was simply "having a pee".
The prosecutor said a number of the parents then performed a citizen's arrest on the 28-year-old defendant and walked him to nearby Cardiff Bay police station where they handed him over to officers. Cervenak was arrested and his phone was seized, as were his clothes which were sent for forensic examination.
Phone and forensic evidence
The court heard that when the defendant's phone was examined officers found 100 pictures of "babies and young children" but that the images were not the subject of any charges.
In his interview Cervenak gave a prepared statement in which he denied the offending and said he had only been having a pee while on his way to go fishing. The court heard that subsequent tests found semen on the defendant's trousers.
Victim impact statement
In a statement read to the court by the prosecution barrister, one of the mums who had challenged the defendant said she was still trying to come to terms with the fact that someone had been watching her young daughter and "trying to steal her innocence". She said she now continually worries about people in the community who "see our children as targets and who want to harm them", and said she "ruminates about abductions and assaults".
The mother added that the incident was having an ongoing impact on her mental health, and said the incident has "changed how I feel politically".
Sentencing and background
Rene Cervenak, of Rhodfa Crughywel, Trowbridge, Cardiff, had previously pleaded guilty on the day of trial to outraging public decency when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. The court heard he has two previous convictions for three offences - namely burglary, possession of a knife, and failing to surrender.
Adam Sharp, for Cervenak, said the defendant came to the UK with his family in 2010 and since then had always lived with his mother. He said his client was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2015, and between 2016 and 2018 he was sectioned four times under the Mental Health Act. The barrister said Cervenak's mother was his registered carer and was concerned about his behaviour, and said she was "extremely distressed at the prospect of him going into custody".
Judge Christopher Felstead said the impact of the offending was clear from the contents of the victim statement the court had heard. He noted that while Cervenak had expressed guilt for his actions in the pre-sentence report, there were "inconsistencies" in his account. The judge said he was minded to largely follow the recommendations in the report.
With a discount for his guilty plea Cervenak was made subject to a 24-month community order, and must complete a rehabilitation requirement and a drug rehabilitation requirement. He was also fined £250. The defendant will be a registered sex offender for the next five years.
Judge Felstead said he declined to make the suggested GPS monitoring and exclusion requirement in the report as it had not been properly explained to him how it would work in practice. He also declined to make a sexual harm prevention order.
