A provincial court judge told a Princeton man, during his sentencing for committing an indecent act, that he “is going to have to keep his pants on in public.”
Judge Gregory Koturbash made the remark in circuit court Thursday, March 11, while addressing Wayne Hooper, 48, who pleaded guilty to the charge.
Hooper received a suspended sentence of 12 months, with probation conditions.
Court heard that on April 21, 2020, a woman called police to report a man gestured towards her while she was walking with her one year old son. The man – later identified as Hooper – then turned away from her, dropped his pants and bent over to expose himself.
“He was naked underneath his pants,” said Crown counsel Ann Lerch.
Hooper was located quickly by RCMP, and Lerch noted he was arrested while carrying three one-litre bottles of cider.
“I was just having a bad day,” Hooper told the court.
According to Hooper’s defense lawyer, the woman who complained was not the intended recipient of the gesture.
“Mr. Hooper doesn’t have a clue who the complainant was, and indeed she wasn’t even the target of his mooning,” said his lawyer.
“There was somebody who he knew who passed by the location on a bicycle.
“They exchanged fingers, and then the moon shot, and the complainant just happened to pass by at the time.”
Koturbash expressed bewilderment at the incident.
“For someone who is 48 years old to do something like that, it’s a little bit bizarre,” he said.
However, Koturbash stopped short of fulfilling a Crown request to ban Hooper from parks and other places where children might gather.
“In light of the fact that this was directed at somebody else, and the mother and the child were caught in the cross fire, so to speak, it would not be appropriate.”
Still, he sternly warned Hooper “if there is any hint of anything like this happening again in the future, it is going to result, potentially, in your incarceration.”
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