The perpetrator, Nigel Raymond Simon, 57, admitted the offence when he appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday from custody. He was sent to prison for three months. The court heard that Simon was a local man who still had family in the island but who now lived in Dorset.
Prosecuting Advocate Phoebe Cobb told the court how the 16-year-old boy had been angling near the site of the former Octopus restaurant at about 8.50am on a Sunday. The defendant, who had parked his pick-up truck nearby, approached the boy and began a conversation. The boy then heard the man say ‘have you ever seen one of these before?’ and when he turned around he saw that Simon had his penis protruding from the zip of his shorts. When the boy asked him if he was being serious, the defendant asked if he was ‘definitely straight’ and invited him to expose himself too.
Simon then returned to his vehicle and drove off. The boy made a note of the registration number and called the police.
At about 11am officers located the defendant sitting in his truck on the Castle Pier where he was arrested.
He told officers: ‘I knew something like this would happen, and I don’t do stuff like that.’
Defending, Advocate Clare Carre said from any view this had been offensive behaviour and distressing to the victim.
Her client had nothing on his record for sex offending. He felt shock, and was ashamed and guilty about what he had done.
He had initially approached the boy as he had an interest in fishing. He had been diagnosed as being bipolar about 15 years ago. On the day prior to this incident he had not taken his medication which had sparked a chain of events.
He had no deviant sexual interests and had not been before a court for more than 30 years.
Judge Marc Davies said it was clear that sex in general played a significant part in the defendant’s thinking, and this was highlighted in the probation report.
‘The courts have to deal with things sometimes that do not make a lot of sense but have an impact on the victims,’ he said.
This had been shocking, upsetting and very uncomfortable for an innocent boy, he said. Only a custodial sentence would be appropriate in this case.
Simon was jailed for three months and made subject to notification requirements for the next five years.