Cool reception for National Nude Day stunt

David Alan Dooley has trouble following court orders, but he had no trouble with the recommendations on a television show about how to take part in National Nude Day.

He has convictions for driving while disqualified, breaches of supervision, breach of community work, breach of bail.

?Now I am asked to trust that you will comply with a community-based sentence,? said Christchurch District Court Judge Brian Callaghan after the suggestion from defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger that he could impose community work and supervision.

Dooley was appearing for sentence on charges of theft, obscene exposure, and breach of prison release conditions.

He said he had taken and sold an item in payment of a debt he was owed.

Miss Bulger said he had heard some discussion on a television programme about how people should go about their business in the nude on National Nude Day.

She said he had no idea, when he stood on a bridge and exposed his genitals to people boating on the Avon, that the boat contained a five-year-old girl, her mother, and grandfather.

She said Dooley, an unemployed 22-year-old, now had a daughter aged three. He was in a relationship with a woman who was doing something about her own difficulties. ?It is the first healthy relationship he has been in for a long time.?

But Judge Callaghan refused to impose the community-based sentence. ?In my view the only appropriate sentence is a short term of imprisonment.?

He jailed Dooley for four months, and ordered him to pay reparations of $115 after his release.

Dooley has been in custody since early November, and would be eligible for release from prison early next month.