A man and a woman accused of performing a sex act on each other in a car outside a primary school are to face a retrial after jurors failed to reach a verdict.
Ex-policeman John Steward, 62 and Kayley Powell, 28, were alleged to have romped on the seats of their Citroen Picasso after they parked it next to other cars near the school gates during the 2.50pm incident on February 22 last year.
Onlookers claimed they carried on 'grinding and thrutching' apparently oblivious to those seeing them until the headmistress of Springhead Infant and Nursery School in Oldham tapped on the window after being alerted by a parent.
Steward who was also formerly a school governor was said to have suddenly jumped back into the passenger seat and when asked what was going on he and Powell both replied in unison: ''We are doing nothing.''
Steward was then seen to be 'visibly shaking' whilst smoking a cigarette whilst Powell then 27 told a pastoral care worker: ''If anything has been going on I am 27. I'm an adult.'' Both were later reported to police.
At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, Powell and Steward both from Oldham, faced charges of outraging public decency but the jury were discharged after they failed to agree on a verdict following two days of deliberation.
The retrial will take place in February 2020.
The accused denied wrong doing with the defence arguing Steward had leaned round to adjust the seats in the back while Powell was having "40 winks" next to him.
Powell and her mother's former partner - had been renovating a house together as part of their family run property development business.
The court heard that morning Steward had folded the rear seats so they could put unwanted items from the house in the boot of the car.
Later he was trying to put the seats back up again.
Describing Steward as a ''father figure,'' Powell told the hearing: "I couldn't see exactly what John was doing with the mechanism because I was facing forward and he was leaning between the two seats into the rear of the car - it took him four or five minutes.
"At that one point I shut my eyes for 40 winks, I was resting my eyes I didn't fall asleep and then I had a cigarette, he might have brushed his arm against me but I didn't feel it. I saw the headteacher coming up the path walking in a different direction to everybody else.
''I was sat in my seat smoking a cigarette and John was sat in his seat smoking too. The headteacher tapped on the window and asked me if I was OK, asked who I was and I said: ''I'm Kayley''' She asked who John was and I said: 'He is my dad' and she said: 'We have had reports something inappropriate is happening in this car.'
''I just laughed but I was placed in a small family room at the school with my son's pastoral support worker. She said I could go but said I wasn't allowed to take my son with me so I decided to stay at the school.
''I only found out what the report was after the police had been called. The headteacher came into the room and asked me what had gone on and then I said: 'I'm an adult I'm 27 I'm not doing anything wrong.'
"I am anaemic and I had been working from 9.30am - I was tired I just wanted to rest my eyes. I was actually ready to get out of the car.
“Again I’ll tell you we weren’t up to anything.”
Steward a police officer for 27 years and a former mechanic in the merchant navy who was governor at Alt Junior School in Oldham between 1991 and 2001 told the jury: "I was unfolded the back seats to the normal position and I was leaning between the front two seats which would be the driver and the passenger side.
''I lifted my body over the gear stick and then reached down to release one of the mechanisms from the rear seat. I used my left hand to move the seat behind Kayley and I leaned over and released the catch in the bottom.
"I didn't use a great deal of force but it needs a positive push down, that is this side immediately behind the passenger side, something else would need to be down if you wanted to bring the back of the seat up.
''I'm 16 stone so me moving around the car would cause movement, there would be a perception of moving the vehicle. Kayley's son needed to sit in the back seat.
"I saw two ladies coming the opposite way up the road I didn't know who it was at the time, she knocked on the window, she introduced herself as the head teacher.
"They looked as if they were walking with a purpose they were fixated on the car, they were two or three car lengths away they were walking against the flow of people. I was sat in the drivers seat looking at them.
"Her words were: 'We have had reports that something inappropriate is happening in this car' and said: 'Kayley come down with me to the office.'
''I didn't know the content of the allegation until I attended the school some hours later. If you want to put it in black and white that somebody is telling the truth and somebody is lying then I'm telling the truth. I'm a family friend - I'm a part of the family.''
Horror CCTV shows boozed-up BMW driver's smash that left woman in coma
Thomas Cook passengers furious after Orlando to Manchester flight delayed for 52 HOURS
