A 13-year-old boy will be on the sex offenders register for two and a half years after he exposed himself on a bus outside Barking station.

Barkingside Magistrates' Court heard how the teenager, who can't be named for legal reasons, boarded the EL2 bus near Dagenham Heathway with eight other males on April 16 this year. He didn't pay for the journey.

When he took his seat on the top deck of the bus, he pulled down his jeans and exposed himself. When the bus driver played a prerecorded announcement reminding the boy there was CCTV, he covered himself.

But that didn't stop him moving to the front of the deck, siting down, doing it again, and then standing up and pulling his jeans completely down. The prosecutor added he was moving his hands like he was masturbating.

The 13-year-old pleaded guilty to exposure in September and received the sentence at Barkingside Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, October 2.

That sentence includes a 12-month order that will see him supervised by youth offending specialists and he will work with the children's charity Barnardo's to try and fix his behaviour. He was also told to pay £105 in costs to the prosecution and a victim surcharge.

Magistrate Finn noted the boy's school attendance "has been virtually nonexistent since September" and pointed out the ramifications of skipping class.

"Because it's the law that you have to go to school, your mum and your dad can be prosecuted," she said.

"They can be put in prison because you're not going to school.

"That's what's going to happen next.

"That will be your fault.

"You're the only person that can change that."

The magistrate finished: "You need to start thinking very carefully now about how your behaviour affects other people."

Commenting on what he gets up to when he isn't at school, the young defendant said he just stays at home because he doesn't like the secondary he's enrolled at. He added that he doesn't hang around with the group he was with on the day of the exposure incident anymore.