A pervert pensioner stripped naked and stood at his window when a school bus dropped girls off outside his home, a court has heard. Thomas Beattie, 71, also showed girls a photograph of his penis on his mobile phone.
The former soldier denied the allegations but has now been convicted after a trial. During the trial the district judge was shown a photograph on a girl's phone which backed up the evidence against Beattie.
The LiverpoolECHO reports that Beattie was only charged over one day of exposure. However, District Judge Wendy Lloyd told him: “It was well known that you would be naked at the window at the time the school bus arrived.”
Shannen Carey, prosecuting, told Liverpool Magistrates’ Court that in March last year the mum of a 15-year-old schoolgirl told police that her daughter had told her that she had seen Beattie exposing himself from a front window on a number of occasions over the space of a year. "She walked past Beattie’s home and saw him stood in his front window with a phone to his ear," Ms Carey said.
"As she walked past he turned the telephone away towards her and on the telephone screen she saw a clear photograph of a penis. It looked like it had been taken from above as a selfie-style shot. He said something but she only heard the word ‘inch’. She went home and told her mum."
Beattie, of Newton-le-Willows, was found guilty of exposure and causing a child aged 15 to look at an image of sexual activity.
The defendant, who has no previous convictions, represented himself at the sentencing hearing, and told the court “I’m innocent. “I was in the Army and have never been in trouble before. I have worked all my life and I’m not a threat to the community," he said.
District Judge Lloyd said he had put the girl and her friend through the ordeal of giving evidence in court and both were cross-examined. She added: “I found the prosecution proved the matters beyond any reasonable doubt. I find you sexually entertained yourself by displaying yourself and your naked penis to a young girl. You knew what time the school bus was due and you made sure when it was due you did not have any clothes on.”
District Judge Lloyd said that she had to punish him and prevent further offending and sentenced him to 20 weeks imprisonment but said that as she believed he was unlikely to re-offend she would suspend the term for 18 months. She also imposed a 20 week curfew between 7pm and 7am, and ordered him to pay costs totalling £528 and sign on the Sex Offenders Register.
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