A PERVERT who exposed himself and performed a sex act while he sat in his car as children were making their way home from school in Leamington has been jailed.
Andrew Mingaye had pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual activity in the presence of a child, claiming he had an alibi and was being wrongly accused by the police.
It was only on the day of his trial at Warwick Crown Court that he admitted being responsible and pleaded guilty to an alternative offence of exposure.
Following an adjournment for a report to be prepared on him, the 29 year-old of Rylands Close, Leamington, was jailed for six months and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years.
Prosecutor Raj Punia said on a Friday afternoon in March last year a 12-year-old girl and a friend were walking along Gainsborough Drive on the Sydenham Estate on their way home from school.
The girl noticed a stationery black Renault car, and as she and her friend continued walking the car moved off and then pulled up in a layby ahead of them.
Then as they walked past it the girl glanced in – and could see that the driver, Mingaye, had exposed himself and was looking at them as he performed a sex act.
Seeing a woman on the opposite side of the road, the girl and her friend crossed over, and Mingaye drove off.
The girl told her mother what had happened when she got home, and the police were informed.
Mingaye was arrested two weeks later after an officer recognised his vehicle, but denied the matter.
In a second interview he admitted being there in his car, and that he exposed himself, but said he thought the girls were 14 or 15 – and replied ‘no comment’ when told they were only 12.
And despite his admissions in the interview, he pleaded not guilty to the charge of sexual activity in the presence of a child – claiming in a defence statement that he had an alibi and had been wrongly accused by the police.
At a pre-trial hearing Mingaye maintained he was not responsible for the act – and it was only on the day of his trial in December that he admitted responsibility.
He had entered his plea on the basis that he had not deliberately intended the girls to see what he was doing.
Miss Punia added Mingaye had previous convictions for exposure in 2008, when he had whistled at a woman and her 13-year-old daughter as they passed his home and then exposed his naked body to them, and for sending an indecent message in 2013 when he had performed a sex act during a Facetime video call.
Lisa Hennessy, defending, said Mingaye had been happily married for the last nine years.
She explained: “He is subject to periods of great stress. He has suffered from depression, and at times of great stress this behaviour emerges.”
But she said Mingaye was now in the middle of a course of counselling he had arranged himself, and he and his wife are saving for the deposit on a house and hoping to have a baby.
“He has been very frightened by the prospect of custody. He feels nothing but shame.”
But jailing Mingaye, Judge Alan Parker told him: “In the pre-sentence report it is said you have remorse. I find that very hard to believe. You have tried to delay the consequences of your disgraceful behaviour.”
