A pervert claimed he gets hard when he wees after he was caught pleasuring himself in front of two lone women, a court heard. Nathan Oliver was caught publicly masturbating by two separate, but equally terrified, female victims in Croydon, South London in October 2022 but tried to blame his erections on a medical condition, Croydon Magistrates' Court heard on Wednesday, January 31.
The 28-year-old London Gatwick Airport worker, of Beechwood Road, South Croydon, was slapped with a 24 month community order after admitting two indecent exposure offences at the same court on January 5. One victim also claimed Oliver had followed her and stared at her from a bus stop a month earlier, but he strongly denied this in court.
At around 10pm on the night of the first offence, the victim, a woman in her early 20s, was walking home when recognised Oliver as the man she claimed she had seen a month earlier. After walking through an alleyway, she reached her front door and saw him with his phone. "I was immediately scared. He appeared to be filming and I was worried what he was going to do," she said in her statement.
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When she turned around again, she saw him 'staring at me with a gormless open mouth' while 'playing with his erect penis', prosecutor Amanda McCable told the court. "I was scared, I panicked. I began shouting at him to get the attention of others," the victim said. A neighbour then then shouted at Oliver, and later confirmed she had seen his erect penis too.
A second victim, also in her early 20s, caught sight of Oliver's penis at a similar time of night when he exposed himself in an alleyway near her home. "As I got clear I could see his penis was poking out of his trousers and his penis was erect... When I realised what I had seen, I ran back to my house," she said in her statement.
She was 'shocked and scared' and 'disgusted' by the incident, which left her afraid to go home alone in the dark. "If I had been caught further down the alleyway it could have been a lot worse," she added. "I do not think it's normal to want to expose yourself in public."
In a statement to police, her brother said she came home 'panicking', kept repeating 'oh my God, oh my God' and looked like she was about to cry. He said when he ran outside he saw Oliver, who matched the description his sister had given.
Police were called and found Oliver waiting nearby, with his jacket inside-out, and he told them he was looking for somewhere to go to the toilet, Ms McCable explained. He told police he had been drinking at a football game with friends, but was struck by a peculiar medical condition as he looked for somewhere to wee on his way home.
"He says he has a medical issue where when he needs to urinate his penis becomes erect. He said he had no sexual feeling. He said he's had this issue of having an erection when he needed to urinate from 20 years old, but he had not told anyone," said Ms McCable.
'It was a one off'
Defence counsel Emma Oliphant said Oliver 'completely denies' following the first victim a month earlier and pleasuring himself. "He accepts he exposed himself. He does not accept he was masturbating. He accepts he was playing with his penis and, to someone else, that may have caused distress," said Ms Oliphant.
She said Oliver was 'mortified' by his antics, but claimed he acted in 'stupidity' and 'he had no real reason' to do it. She noted his autism and 'very low cognitive function', and, in a bid to avoid entry onto the sex offender's register, argued the two counts of exposure were a 'one off'. In a letter from Oliver to one victim, he said: "I am sorry my behaviour affected you so badly."
The bench of three was not persuaded, and the magistrate Terry Carpenter issued a two-year community order and 12-week tagged curfew between 9pm and 6am. Oliver must also complete a 43-day offenders programme, 45 days of rehabilitation activity requirement, and pay costs of £199. He is entered onto the sex offenders register for five years.
"No-one should experience what you did to them. It's totally stupid and it's now going to affect your life for a very long time... It was more an act of stupidity, and perhaps impacted a little bit by alcohol," added Mr Carpenter.
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