The truth was much shadier.
Bruce Donald Saxton (54) was found guilty of burglary following a judge-alone trial at the Dunedin District Court today - “peeping-Tom activities”, Judge Thomas Ingram called it.
He was acquitted on another charge.
When police arrested Saxton on February 18, they asked him why he was walking around the north of the city at about 11pm.
The defendant told them he had been working late and felt guilty because had eaten takeaways having recently enrolled with Jenny Craig.
Judge Ingram said Saxton's explanation was “highly questionable”.
The fact police found a police scanner in the man's car that night added considerable weight to their case, the judge said.
The court heard Saxton was spotted lurking outside a student flat on Ethel Benjamin Place on February 18.
A resident said she was out on her third-floor balcony and noticed a man lingering below.
When she returned 10 minutes later, the man was still there, she told the court.
“He was hanging around near the bedroom window,” the resident said.
When she saw the flash of a camera go off twice as he held open a curtain, she called her partner out and they alerted police shortly afterwards, the court heard.
“He was there until police came then he ran through the bushes.”
Constable Bryce Johnson, who was working nearby at the time of the call, said he saw a brief glimpse of a person fitting the description as he arrived on the scene.
He pursued the man across a lawn and through a car park to Emily Siedeberg Place where he saw Saxton “walking quickly”.
“His demeanour suggested to me he was in a hurry to get away,” Const Johnson said.
Saxton, the court heard, got into his Mitsubishi vehicle and was pulling away when the officer opened the door and stopped him.
“He was sweating heavily. I could see beads of sweat on his brow,” Const Johnson said.
He asked Saxton what he was doing.
The defendant replied he had been working in the area and had gone for a walk because the streets there were nice and flat.
About 11.20pm, Saxton was arrested and refused to comment on the allegations that night.
There was nothing incriminating found on the man's phone.
Officers later found a police scanner in Saxton's glove box which was tuned to the Dunedin police communications channel.
Reviewing the file, police found another peeping-Tom incident from three weeks earlier on the same street.
A student gave evidence she had just come out of the shower when she heard someone's footsteps outside her room on January 29.
She opened the curtains and was confronted with a man holding onto her window sill.
“He kind of just stared for a bit and then walked off quite normally,” she said.
She described the peeper as “quite chubby”, with stubble, a receding hairline and “intense dark eye bags”.
“The face is quite etched in my memory,” she said.
Though when police showed her a photo montage three weeks later she was initially unable to pick out Saxton.
When shown in different lighting tones, however, she fingered the defendant.
Judge Ingram said the evidence was not sufficiently reliable for a conviction.
“Mistaken identification can result in a serious miscarriage of justice,” he said.
Saxton was sentenced to 80 hours' community work and 12 months' supervision.
Judge Ingram noted the defendant had a previous similar conviction from 12 years ago.
