Jail for indecent act in Mona Vale rose garden
A 35-year-old man with a reputation as a public sex pest has been sentenced to four months in prison for doing an indecent act in Mona Vale’s rose garden.
Peter James Ashwell, a man with four previous convictions for indecent acts, was seen masturbating in the park with a woollen blanket covering himself.
The park was open to the public, including children, at 4.45pm on August 8, and a person walking a dog saw him.
Ashwell told police he was not making a public scene but just keeping warm under the blanket.
Today in court defence counsel Grant Tyrrell said Ashwell’s only option was a prison sentence, and Ashwell wanted to say that he was not an inherently bad person, but had difficulties with his personality.
Ashwell was not aggressively approaching the public, and he was under a blanket. He did not deliberately involve members of the public, Tyrrell said.
Judge Christopher Somerville said he was sentencing Ashwell on three charges, one indecent act, one breach of bail, and one breach of prison release conditions.
He sentenced Ashwell to four months in prison and said he was not going to impose any release conditions after this sentence in prison, because Ashwell could not comply with them.
Category: News
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