A drunk deportee approached a woman in her car with his pants down and demanded she look at him while he touched himself.
Harley Tane Jones, 31, pleaded guilty in the Invercargill District Court yesterday to the indecent act he said he could not remember early on November 2 last year.
The court heard his victim was a McDonald’s employee who had parked her car in the Dee St carpark just before 5am.
Frightened, she locked her car doors and called her manager for help.
The victim said she then noticed the defendant had his pants down to his knees and was touching himself, yelling: ‘‘F...ing look at me. You’re just ignoring me’’.
The woman began crying and rang her mother.
Police, who had been searching for Jones over an earlier matter, arrested him after he tried to escape across the road on foot.
Defence counsel Tanya McCullum said her client had issues with alcohol and had no memory of the offensive behaviour.
‘‘It seems that this isn’t something that would normally occur,’’ she said.
Ms McCullum also said Jones had already flagged his drinking as being a problem, having referred himself to a health organisation a month before the offending.
Judge Mark Williams noted the defendant had a criminal history in Australia but that his last offence was ‘‘some 10 years ago now’’.
Department of Corrections probation officer Petra Laughton confirmed Jones had been subject to a returned offender order, but the overseas offending was unrelated.
For the indecent act with intent to insult, the judge sentenced the man to 100 hours’ community work and 12 months’ supervision.
Jones was ordered by the judge to engage and complete any programme, including drug or alcohol counselling, as recommended by Probation.
‘‘It seems to me alcohol is an issue you’re happy to grapple with,’’ Judge Williams said.
