A drunk homeless man caught urinating in the street during the coronavirus crisis said there were no public toilets open at the time.

Janis Goba, 47, appeared at Norwich Magistrates Court charged with being drunk and disorderly in Well Street, Thetford, on March 7.

Alan Wheetman, prosecuting, said a witness had been walking to work at a betting shop when she saw the defendant “asleep on the wall of the church next door”.

He then got up and urinated on the floor prompting the police to be called.

Goba, of no fixed abode but who has a care of address at the Salvation Army, Magdalen Street, Thetford, appeared in court on Monday when he admitted being drunk and disorderly in a public place.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said: “Due to coronavirus all public toilets in Thetford were closed.”

He was fined £50 and ordered to pay a £32 victim surcharge.