The married stepdad-of-two was at his home in Calcot on November 7, when he was charged with indecent exposure with intent to cause alarm or distress.
he has put me off men
Giving evidence at Reading Crown Court yesterday, the lady said: ‘I would see him two or three times a month, naked, mowing the lawn or cleaning the windows, always naked apart from a pair of boots. I saw him twice pleasuring himself, it made me feel sick, he has put me off men.
‘Put it this way – it has put me off my sausages for life.’
But her neighbour said the November incident was a one-off ‘moment of madness’, not realising anyone was watching him, and he was embarrassed and ashamed.
Asked why he did it, he told the court: ‘It was lax judgement.’
The court heard he told police in interview he swore at his neighbour because he saw her looking into his garden when he went downstairs in his boxers to chase a pair of cats away. He denied ever being naked or touching his genitals.
But in court yesterday he said: ‘I did not know anyone was watching. Up until yesterday I was sticking to the story I gave in my police interview that I never did it, but when I knew there was CCTV I had to change it.’
when I knew there was CCTV I had to change [my story]
He is on conditional bail and still denies the offence.
[Since this article was published, the defendant was convicted of the crime and subsequently imprisoned. This appeal was dismissed at London’s Court of Appeal Criminal Division.]
Councillor slams the culprits behind the theft which saw flagstones taken from a path between Hinderwell Street and Park Grove.
Residents in two west Hull streets have been left confused and infuriated after corrupt thieves posing as workmen ripped up dozens of historic paving slabs from a cut-through.
Flagstones, which were installed over a century ago, were stolen between Hinderwell Street and Park Grove, off Princes Avenue, on Monday, July 9, in broad daylight between 3pm and 4pm.
They are part of the history of the area
Councillor Robinson, who represents the Avenues ward, was informed of the theft by a resident on one of the two streets.
He has since contacted Hull City Council to ensure the theft is logged with the police and has asked for CCTV cameras in the area to be checked.
Councillor Robinson believes the theft was ‘deliberate and targeted’ as opposed to ‘petty vandalism’, and he is angry with those behind the elaborate scheme.
He said: ‘Our understanding is that they gave the appearance of workmen and they took flagstones which were laid when the houses were originally built over 100 years ago.
‘They are part of the history of the area and we have insisted that the council pursues this and regards it as theft because a considerable number of stones have been taken.
We do want residents to challenge workmen if they seem suspicious
‘This is not petty or casual vandalism, this was planned and deliberate theft, and we should regard it as such.’
Councillor Robinson believes the thieves only left the area when they were challenged by a concerned member of the public.
The lack of paving slabs has reduced the ground to rubble and some elderly residents are already finding it difficult to use the cut-through due to the uneven and unstable surface.
Councillor Robinson wants members of the public to be vigilant and to keep an eye out for any potential copycat thieves.
He is urging people to challenge workmen and ask them for ID if they have suspicions about them, and also to keep a lookout online for any trace of the historic slabs being sold.
‘We do want residents to challenge workmen if they seem suspicious and if they feel able and safe enough to do so,’ Councillor Robinson said.
‘If workmen are genuine they won’t mind being asked and if people do feel scared they should ring the council or the police on 101.
‘If people see these flagstones for sale online or on social media they should let us know and flag it up immediately.’
An arrow shattered the window of a house in Worcester while an unsuspecting pensioner was sitting in her front room.
The ‘terrifying’ incident happened while Mrs Griffiths was sitting in her front room.
She heard a loud bang and initially thought something had fallen into the garden.
But when her son, who lives in the same house, went outside into the garden he discovered the shocking truth.
He said: ‘I was just letting the dog out when I saw something lying on the path. At first I thought it was one of the sticks that Mum uses in the garden, but when I picked it up, I realised it was an arrow.’
The pair saw that one of the upper panes of the conservatory was broken, and realised what must have happened.
‘The arrow broke through the first pane of the triple-glazed window, and then must have bounced back into the garden,’ said her son.
‘My mum spends a lot of time outside, and she could have been standing there and got hurt when it came into the garden.
‘She’s seventy-three and not in the best of health, and it could have hurt her bouncing back off the conservatory.
‘Someone must have been shooting at a bird or something and it just went further than they expected it to. I hope that if they see this, their conscience will lead them to apologise and offer to pay for the repair to the conservatory.’
The arrow is made by Easton, a leading manufacturer of arrows, whose products are used by many leading archers.
A local councillor said he was shocked to hear about the incident and is calling for anyone with information to come forward.
He said: ‘It’s unprecedented. I’ve never heard of anything like this happening here before, and we certainly don’t want it happening again.
“It’s unprecedented”
‘It’s terrifying to think of arrows flying into people’s gardens like that and we can only hope it was an accident. If anyone knows about it, I would urge them to call the police.’
“It’s terrifying to think of arrows flying into people’s gardens”
A community is up in arms after trees that were planted to improve their area were snapped almost immediately.
Residents and businesses in the Arbury Court area believe vandals struck within hours after the two silver birches were planted yesterday.
The planting was part of a £200,000 city council effort to spruce up the square – so shopkeepers and locals are bitterly disappointed by the damage.
Mr West, owner of a local butcher’s shop, said: ‘The council planted some silver birch trees which were absolutely beautiful and just perfect for the area and it’s a huge disappointment to everyone in the court that they have been vandalised already.’
He described the act as ‘senseless vandalism’.
A local, who has lived on Arbury Road for thirty years, said: ‘I can’t believe it. They can barely have been up for twelve hours.
‘The local shopkeepers have been pleased about the improved environment in Arbury Court. Just to have within twelve hours the trees being wrecked is beyond belief really.’
Just to have within twelve hours the trees being wrecked is beyond belief really
Mr Hayer, whose family has run a local establishment for more than twenty years, said there had been a pattern of vandalism in the court since December.
It isn’t what we want
‘It isn’t what we want,’ he said. ‘They come and do the damage and the council comes around putting it back and then it all goes again.’
The Cambridge city councillor, who represents the area, said he had not been made aware of the damage but would aim to visit Arbury Court today.
He said: ‘There’s £200,000 being spent on refurbishing Arbury Court, which is a well-used local centre. It was actually looking a bit tired which is why that money was being spent on it, changing the layout, having a few more trees in there.
‘If somebody has vandalised it already t
hat would upset residents and make me very angry. I hope that somebody knows who did it and that they can be reported.
‘They may be young people doing it and they may not be paying council tax but their parents probably are, and their parents will be contributing to this in the way we all do.’
Police said they will be contacting Cambridge City Council about the damage and urged anyone with information about it to report what they know.
A young man who ended up in court after wearing a cone on his head during a drunken jape has hit back – labelling the whole situation ‘ridiculous’.
Mr O’Donnell, of Park Avenue, Worcester, said he was trying to keep a straight face when he was brought before magistrates for being drunk and disorderly.
The forklift operator appeared before magistrates in Worcester on Thursday where he was handed a conditional discharge for six months and ordered to pay a £135 fine and a £20 victim surcharge following the incident in Worcester on July 31.
He said: ‘It was meant to be a laugh. I find it all a bit silly really. I had it on my head. Police told me to take it off so I took it off.
‘There were a lot of other people saying: “Can we get a picture of you with it on,” so I put it back on.
‘Everyone wanted to take my picture. It was just a laugh. I was drunk and in good spirits and about to go home. I do like a bit of a joke when I’m out.’
Mr O’Donnell had been out drinking at Lloyds, the Slug and Lettuce and Velvet nightclub when he said two female officers took issue with him wearing the cone.
I did lie down in the street because I was out of breath
He said: ‘I was running off and they chased me. I did lie down in the street because I was out of breath and they cuffed my hands behind my back. I can’t remember what they said to me.’
Mr O’Donnell spent a night in the cells and was charged next morning with being drunk and disorderly. He admits he has been silly but does not believe the case should have come to court.
He added: ‘It was a waste of taxpayers’ money, a waste of my time, a waste of their time. People keep making cone jokes. I walked into court with a straight face and came out smiling. I just find it ridiculous.’
He says his employers have seen the funny side and it would have no impact on his employment.
His solicitor also criticised the decision to bring the case to court as the ‘most harmless’ example of drunken disorderly behaviour she had ever seen.
It was a waste of taxpayers’ money
A sergeant from West Mercia Police said: ‘Officers patrolling Foregate Street in Worcester arrested Mr O’Donnell for being drunk and disorderly in a public place.
‘Whilst, for a time, he did have a traffic cone on his head, it was his overall disorderly conduct that led to his arrest.
‘His public actions were reviewed and the decision was made that a charge was appropriate under section 91 of the Criminal Justice Act.’
A West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: ‘Police officers on two separate occasions asked Mr O’Donnell to replace two police traffic cones, which he had removed without permission.
‘When he failed to follow their instructions, officers tried to arrest Mr O’Donnell, but he ran away from them. He was eventually caught and arrested.
‘A file was forwarded to the Crown Prosecution Service who applied the Code for Crown Prosecutors and due to the evidence which was made available to us, Mr O’Donnell was subsequently charged with being drunk and disorderly.’
A woman is furious her car was vandalised after she parked it on the drop kerb in front of her own driveway.
Sarah has slammed a secretive parking vigilante for vandalising her car which was parked six inches on the kerb at the foot of her own driveway.
Her black Audi was damaged with a single scratch, which runs from the rear panel, across both doors and on to the side panel near the wing mirror.
Sarah believes the unknown vandal is the same person who left two bogus parking tickets under her windscreen wipers, which threatened her with a £400 fine.
‘I am angry more than anything else,’ she said. ‘It’s just a bit baffling really, that someone could be that bothered about me parking on the kerb outside my own house.’
“I am angry more than anything else”
Sarah lives on a busy residential street in Helston and parks her car outside her home. She leaves it across the bottom of her own driveway and pulls slightly on to the drop kerb, about the width of her tyres.
However, her parking has clearly irritated an unknown vigilante, who has taken the trouble to ticket her car with laminated fake parking fines.
She said: ‘I can completely understand there are some ignorant people who will park anywhere, but I am not being rude or taking up the pavement. This is a bus route, so I tuck my car in, but there’s still plenty of room for a double pushchair or a wheelchair to get past.’
The bogus parking tickets have an antiquated design that say they are issued by Cornwall County Council, Devon County Council and Devon and Cornwall Constabulary. Cornwall Council has not been known by that name since 2009, when it changed into a unitary authority.
Sarah said she had checked with the council and police and neither had any knowledge of issuing any such tickets.
She added: ‘It’s a cowardly act really. I know he couldn’t get any further with the tickets so he’s scratched my car. I assume it’s a man, but it could be a woman. Looking at the writing I would say it is an old person.
‘Why haven’t they bothered to speak to me about it? This is just the actions of a cowardly bully.’
“This is just the actions of a cowardly bully”
The stretch of road is a 20mph zone with speed bumps, but does not have any parking restrictions. Without such restrictions, parking on the kerb is not prohibited by Cornwall Council. It only becomes a matter for the police if the car is causing an obstruction.
Rule 244 of the Highway Code says: ‘You must not park partially or wholly on the pavement in London and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it. Parking on the pavement can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs.’
Damaging a car is a criminal offence and Sarah said she has now reported the vandalism to the police.
ANTI-SOCIAL NEWS
* * *
In which we apply SCIENCE to the art of local newspaper reporting.
It goes without saying that the world is a strange, strange place.
Nothing appears to make sense at all. Two million years of evolution have brought us out of the caves, into a post-modern society, then straight back to the caves again via local news stories about people attacked by foxes while they are trying to have a peaceful poo in their upstairs toilet.
There must be some sort of explanation for this madness, and the only one that we can think of is that the world is continually trying to balance good news and bad news in order to maintain a global balance.
Karmic energy, as the top scholars of karmic energy you’d find in any pub would tell you, needs to be maintained, otherwise the world will descend into chaos, anarchy, dogs and cats living together, the whole nine yards.
This means that for every heroic tale of dedicated rescuers dragging a dozen lost boys out of a submerged cave in Thailand, there’s another story, many thousands of miles away, of a woman being told to remove a paddling pool from her garden in case burglars fall into it in the dead of night and drown.
Both of these stories emerged on the same day, and therefore – through the application of science – prove this theory.
How else can you explain many of the seemingly random stories that appear in our local press?
We theorise that when a good thing happens somewhere – a baby is born against the odds, a random act of kindness changes a pensioner’s life for the better, Piers Morgan announces he is leaving the planet to go and live on Venus – people a
re compelled by forces unknown to do something strange or anti-social to maintain the fragile global order.
Therefore a butcher in Leek, for reasons beyond him, starts adding double entendres about sausages to his advertising.
Therefore a seagull develops a dislike for bald heads or Pokémon Go-ers or both, and decides to take matters into his own claws.
And therefore an entire Belfast sports club suddenly and collectively lose their hand-eye coordination and end up hurling their balls into their disbelieving neighbour’s garden.
All of these are quite natural reactions to good things happening in the world, whether the people involved realise it or not.
But I expect you’re wondering why we’ve also included stories about dog poo in this section.
Well, the explanation here is simple and quite separate from conservation of universal energy.
It’s this: People are gits.
The incredible thing about the near-universal application of gittishness is that the people who are being gits do not actually realise their innate gittery. This ignorance of gittism manifests itself in the sort of anti-social behaviour that leaves the victims of gittery with only one course of action – an article in the local newspaper with a photo of them pointing at two tons of bricks dumped in the middle of their street by people who can only be described with the correct scientific term: ‘gits’.
Gits let their dogs poo in the street and leave it there for children to find.
Gits use naughty words on their post without a care in the world for those it might offend.
Gits take squirrel form, set people’s garages on fire, and make them miss a funeral.
Gits are everywhere, and it’s down to you, me, and the brave members of Her Majesty’s Press to expose them, in any newspaper possible, and save the universe from descending into anarchy.
Here endeth the lesson.
Angry People in Local Newspapers Page 5