‘HORRIFIED’ WOMAN SAW FLASHER FROM KITCHEN WINDOW
Man said he was just urinating in public
FLASHER Ashley Thomas claimed he was just having a wee after he was caught exposing himself to a woman as she looked out of her kitchen window.
Magistrates heard the 26-year-old stood pleasuring himself for ‘a minute or so’ before crossing the road.
When he turned round again, the horrified woman could see his manhood was still hanging out of his jogging bottoms.
Now Thomas has been given a 12-month community order after being convicted of one count of exposure following a trial.
Karen Cockitt, prosecuting at North Staffordshire Justice Centre, said the offence took place at 7.30pm on April 29 last year.
Thomas was standing on the corner of a road in Chesterton when the resident first spotted him.
“She presumed he was waiting for somebody,” said Ms Cockitt. “Then she saw him turn around. He had his penis out and exposed.
“She was looking out of the window and couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing.
“The defendant at that point was looking directly at the window. He continued his actions.
“The witness then saw a female who also spotted what was happening and immediately turned round in the other direction.”
Thomas, of Clandon Avenue, Tunstall, was subsequently seen getting into a nearby vehicle and driving off.
By then, the witness had called the police and he was arrested.
Representing himself at his sentencing hearing, Thomas still maintained his actions had been misconstrued.
He told magistrates: “On the night, I was suffering from a weak bladder. Basically, I went for a wee in public.
“She thought it was something different. That’s it really.”
He said he now has an appointment for an ultrasound next month.
“I’ve not been diagnosed with anything yet. But there’s a high level I’ve got something wrong with my bladder,” he added.
The court was told Thomas has a previous conviction for outraging public decency in Wolstanton in 2019. On that occasion, a woman walking her children to school had seen him committing the offence while driving his car.
As part of his latest community order, he must complete 30 rehabilitation activity days and 100 hours of unpaid work.
Thomas must also pay £300 costs and a £95 victim surcharge.
ON Monday, it was a relief to listen to the Prime Minister announce the roadmap that will guide us cautiously but irreversibly out of lockdown.
I know many constituents have been eagerly waiting for updates, and I am grateful that we now have a full and comprehensive four-step plan.
I am delighted that case rates locally, and across the country, continue to fall, although the numbers in hospital remain high. Nevertheless, we are starting to see the impact of our incredible, life-saving, vaccination programme bearing fruit.
Vaccines will mean that fewer people will get Covid-19 and that those who do are far less likely to go to hospital or to die.
This week we also received some fantastic early results from scientific studies of our vaccination program, which confirmed that it is having exactly the effect we had hoped for from the trials.
A study in Scotland found that vaccinated people were 85 per cent less likely to end up in hospital than unvaccinated ones, and the Oxford/az vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine were statistically indistinguishable.
Despite the politically-motivated statements made by European leaders about the Oxford vaccine, it is stopping people from dying just as well as the Pfizer one.
All of this good news has made me more hopeful than ever that the end really is in sight – by the summer, our lives will be very different and we will be returning to normal. In this spirit therefore, I would like to take the opportunity to talk about some things other than Covid.
One campaign I have been making the case for recently is the Fairer Share campaign for a Proportional Property Tax. As I wrote in the Daily Telegraph this month, when the pandemic is over and we turn all our energy towards reinvigorating the economy and building back better, the Government will need to show in no uncertain terms we have delivered on our promise to level up those towns and cities previously left behind.
We have huge inward investment coming to Newcastle through the Future High Streets Fund and our Town Deal bid, but I believe the Government should also be looking to level up by reforming our outdated property taxes.
The system is out of date, confusing, unpopular, unequal and most importantly unfair, placing the heaviest burden on the young, low-earners, and those living in less prosperous parts of the country.
I believe we should abolish council tax and stamp duty, replacing these hated taxes with a proportional property tax, creating a more modern and much fairer system of property taxation.
Crucially, this would be revenue-neutral for the Treasury, while resulting in savings for the vast majority of people up and down the country, including 97 per cent of households in my Newcastle constituency.
I am also pushing for permanent reductions in business rates to help struggling town centres across the country, and make them a more attractive place to do business.
Our high streets need a helping hand after a bruising 12 months, and I think permanent changes to this broken system are desperately needed.
Given the huge expense of the financial support we have given to jobs and businesses throughout the pandemic, the Chancellor will have a difficult balancing act next Wednesday. Nevertheless I hope his Budget will look at the potential for reforming our property taxes along the lines I have suggested.
Finally, on a more local level, I am pleased to report that the Environment Agency (EA) has announced that a new air quality monitoring exercise will be conducted in the area around Walley’s Quarry. The exercise will be based out of two sites and will begin very shortly.
I am glad the EA have now reversed their position since I wrote to them in September calling for fresh monitoring, and I would like to thank everyone who has been reporting incidents of odour to emphasise the scale of this problem.