A Dunedin businessman has avoided jail but failed in his bid to keep his name suppressed on his seventh conviction for wilful indecency in public.
Keith Morris Wilson, a 69-year-old manager, was given three months' home detention and 100 hours' community work for doing an indecent act in a place to which the public had access, namely the Dunedin Public Library.
Wilson was on the first floor of the library shortly before 5pm on March 24 when he began masturbating while looking at a young schoolgirl in uniform.
He was confronted by staff and security officers but refused to talk to them and hastily left the library. Police arrested him later at his home.
A month later he admitted the charge, was remanded for sentence and granted interim name suppression.
He appeared for sentence in the Dunedin District Court on Monday when Judge Kevin Phillips said the starting point for sentence had to be imprisonment.
Wilson had six previous convictions for similar offending, in 1965, 1966, 1977, 2002, 2003 and 2012. He had received various sentences, including a fine, probation and intensive supervision and supervision and had twice been granted final name suppression.
Rehabilitation was important and information from a psychologist noted a long history of an abnormal sexual interest, although Wilson's offending was non-contact, the judge said. After the last conviction, the defendant and his wife had put in place safety plans which seemed to work for a time.
The pre-sentence report noted Wilson as saying he had considered his offending was victimless but counsel David More said the defendant now realised that was not the case.
The defendant also told probation he was "unexpectedly aroused, looking at nice pair of legs''.
"You were looking at a schoolgirl,'' Judge Phillips said.
Wilson and his wife had been at the library together and had gone home. But he went back, ostensibly looking for a particular book, and that was when the offending happened.
"Your behaviour is entrenched,'' the judge said. "You know what you have to do; you have a supportive wife but, because of your recidivism, you go round and start offending again.''
The defendant's behaviour had to be denounced. The offending, while not violent, happened in a public area and was also serious because of the previous offences.
But while prison was the starting point, Wilson was clearly a candidate for home detention, given his age, his background and the support he had from his wife, Judge Phillips said.
He sentenced the defendant to three months' home detention with psychological assessment, counselling and treatment as recommended, followed by six months' post-detention conditions with the same requirements. Wilson was also sentenced to 100 hours' community work.
Wilson's name had been suppressed until sentencing and Mr More asked to have the order made permanent because of the hardship publication would cause the defendant's wife. She was an equal partner in the business. Publication of her husband's name would cause extreme hardship to her, as the business would not be able to continue operating.
The couple had previously had to close down the business, relocate and start again but it had cost them much of their savings. And while the police argued name publication was in the public interest and Wilson and his wife could sell the business, it was "too late for that'', Mr More said.
He also argued there was "a vast difference'' between the public interest and what the public might be interested in.
Judge Kevin Phillips said there had to be exceptional circumstances to justify non-publication of name in such a situation. Wilson must have learned from what happened in the past, yet he had reoffended. And the grounds put forward on behalf of Wilson's wife did not meet the test to establish the matters were out of the ordinary, the judge said.
He refused permanent name suppression but allowed Wilson until noon yesterday to decide whether he was going to appeal the decision.
No appeal was filed.
