A man has pleaded guilty to outraging public decency following a Download Festival sex charge that went viral across social media, after he and a woman were filmed having sex on a Ferris wheel at the Donington Park site on 13 June. Innes Miller, 33, from Nottinghamshire, entered his plea at Leicester Magistrates Court on 10 September.
The incident took place on the Saturday evening of Download Festival, shortly before Guns N’ Roses took the main stage as headliners. Footage circulated widely on social media in the days that followed, and it was reported in court that Miller became aware of the public outcry when his employer rang him to say, ‘You’re all over the internet.’
What happened on the Ferris wheel
Prosecutor Sally Bedford told the court that the complaint against Miller was made by a woman who had taken her young son on the Ferris wheel at the same time the incident was taking place. According to Bedford, the witness’s son, who has autism, looked around and said, ‘Oh my God, what are they doing?’
Bedford set out the scene in detail: ‘She looked and could see the woman standing up but bent over, and her head was hanging to the side, and the man was behind, and they were clearly engaging in sexual intercourse. Other people with children were having picnics, and a number of people’s attention was drawn to what was going on.’
The witness, Bedford told the court, ‘was mortified.’ Bedford added that the witness reported her son was ‘in shock’ and that, since the incident, his behaviour had changed. It is the impact on that family, rather than the viral spread of the footage itself, that sits at the heart of the case.
The Download Festival sex charge outcome and Miller’s background
Miller had initially refused to comment when first questioned by police. The woman involved in the incident, who had met Miller earlier on the day, was apologetic when contacted by police and admitted the offence immediately. She was not prosecuted. Miller’s case proceeded to court, where he entered his guilty plea.
The Nottingham Post reports that Miller, who is studying civil engineering at Nottingham College, was fined £80 and ordered to pay £85 court costs plus a £32 victim surcharge. His lawyer told the court that Miller was ‘thoroughly ashamed and embarrassed’ about what was described as a ‘moment of madness’.
That framing, the brief lapse in a public space, is a familiar one in cases like this. But the Download Festival sex charge landed differently from a standard public order offence precisely because of the context: a family festival environment, a child with autism whose behaviour was reportedly affected, and footage that spread far beyond the field before anyone had a chance to think about consequences.
Miller’s boss making that call while the footage was still trending captures the particular texture of how these moments play out now. The legal process grinds along on its own timeline, but the social media verdict arrives within hours. By the time Miller stood in a Nottinghamshire courtroom, the clip had already done its damage and its rounds.
Sentencing at Leicester Magistrates Court on 10 September brought the formal chapter of the Download Festival sex charge to a close, with Miller walking away fined and ordered to pay costs totalling £197 alongside the victim surcharge.
