Man acquitted of indecent act near Kildare/Wicklow border 

A MAN who was accused of exposing his penis in the car park of a secluded wood had the case against him dismissed after the judge found that the state had not made its case.

The man was accused of “intentionally engaging in offensive conduct of a sexual nature, to wit, exposing his genitals and holding his erect penis in front of a member of the public” at the Lord’s Wood, Baltinglass, Co Wicklow on 17 October 2023.

The only witness in the case was a woman who was out walking her dog on that day. She told Judge Geraldine Carthy that she usually took an hour to walk two laps of the woods with her dog and that on that day, she was putting her dog into her car when she noticed a car parked beside hers with the driver’s door ajar.

The woman said she had to be careful with putting the dog into the car because of the proximity of the other car and that when she glanced over, she saw a man sitting in the driver’s seat with his jeans open and holding his penis in his right hand.

She said that she was “alarmed and shocked” and phoned her husband. She said that the fact that the man’s car door was open made her feel afraid and she also remembered seeing the car there in the car park before. The witness continued that she saw the car there two days later on 19 October and that the car door was again open.

The court heard that the woman went to Baltinglass Garda Station to make a complaint about the alleged incident and that she felt very worried and afraid of what she’d seen. She continued that as there was a member of her family who was terminally ill, her daily walk in the woods was a very important outlet for her.

“That walk is very important to me. I want to go on this walk and not feel afraid. I did not expect to see anything like that,” said the witness.

Under cross-examination by Eamon O’Moore, BL for the defendant, the witness said that she was “100% confident” that the man was wearing dark jeans.

When Mr O’Moore put it to the woman that in her statement she told the gardaí that she’d only glanced into the car for ‘one or two seconds’, she replied that “whatever length of time it took”, she was sure of what she saw.

When Mr O’Moore asked her why she hadn’t gone straight to the gardaí when she first saw the man on 17 October, she replied that she “had a lot on her plate” as a family member was dying and that she also had to process what she saw.

Mr O’Moore told Judge Geraldine Carthy that his client would say that he was texting his girlfriend throughout the entire time that the incident allegedly happened, showing phone records in court which illustrated that there was a constant stream of messages for an hour or so while he was in the car park.

The defendant then took the stand to give direct evidence in his own defence. He said that he was in the car park sitting in his car, sending WhatsApp messages to his girlfriend. A photo of the Lord’s Wood, which the defendant had taken and sent to his girlfriend with a time stamp showing the exact time he took it, was also shown to the judge.

Mr O’Moore told the court that the conversation between the defendant and his then girlfriend was “mundane” and that there was “barely a couple of minutes between each text”.

When asked about the clothes that he was wearing, the defendant said that he was wearing light-coloured jeans on 17 and 19 October and that he wore them for most of that week, including when he was called to give a statement to Baltinglass Garda Station.

Mr O’Moore said there was a particular reason why his client had worn the same clothes for most of that week because of a situation at home, but that he didn’t want to go into it in open court.

Asked why his car door was open, the defendant said that he was a heavy vaper and that he always kept his car door ajar to let the fumes out. He said that when the woman looked into his car, he had his mobile phone in one hand and his vape in the other.

When asked if he had his penis in his hand, the defendant replied “absolutely not”. When asked by Inspector Tom Jones if he had noticed the woman looking into his car, he said that he hadn’t noticed her because he’d been so engrossed in the conversation with his girlfriend.

When the evidence concluded, Judge Carthy found that the state had not reached the threshold to prove its case and therefore dismissed the case against the defendant.