CHRIS THOMSON
EXCLUSIVE: A serial sex offender who sat naked in the back of a Transperth bus has been banned from riding public transport on weekdays.
The 26-year-old man’s myriad offences on Perth’s public transport system were revealed in a decision published today by District Court Chief Judge Peter Martino.
In August 2004, the man sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl and 14-year-old girl at a bus stop.
At the same stop on a different day he exposed himself to a group of girls waiting for a bus. He then threw a rock at a bus, striking the head of a student aboard.
In March 2006, the man was convicted of assault after approaching a 12-year-old school girl on a train, sitting beside her and placing his knee on her knee.
NAKED
In April 2007, he was convicted of disorderly behaviour in public after sitting naked at the back of a bus that was carrying children and adults.
In June 2007, the man verbally abused a 12-year-old girl on a train.
He followed the girl off the train and pushed her. She fell onto the side of a bus that was coming to a stop.
The public transport offences are but a sample of the many of which the man has been convicted in recent years.
Clinical psychologist Lara Harmsworth told Judge Martino that the man posed a significant risk to older children and young women.
NO PURPOSE
Ms Harmsworth testified that the man – who is autistic – spent lots of time riding public transport with no purpose, which brought him into contact with potential victims.
Judge Martino issued orders banning the man from buses, trains or ferries for 12 months between 8am and 4.30pm on weekdays.
Further restrictions placed on the man included the need for him to stay exclusively at Disability Services Commission housing rather than at times with his parents at their Eden Hill house.
The restrictions were in response to an application by police commissioner Karl O’Callaghan for a child protection prohibition order against the man.
Dr O’Callaghan will be free to apply for a further public transport ban when the imposed 12 months expires.
