Bus driver exposed himself

A TOOWOOMBA bus driver who exposed himself to a woman passenger has been placed on probation to address his issues.

Warren Glen Swadling, 49, was driving a Bus Queensland route to Kearneys Spring about 5.40pm, April 7, when he had just two passengers left on the bus.

After the male passenger got off, he had driven the last passenger, a 60-year-old woman who was a regular bus patron, to her door as was his practice and the pair chatted to her stop.

However, after saying goodbye, the woman turned to see Swadling had his erect penis exposed, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard.

“The woman said ‘Oh my God!’,” police prosecutor Tahlia Boettcher told the court.

The bus driver then replied: “I’ve been wanting to show you this for a while,” she said.

The woman said she was shocked and didn’t know what to do so she laughed and got off the bus, Ms Boettcher said.

Two days later Swadling had apologised to the woman when she got on the bus and she had replied “I didn’t think you’d do that”, Ms Boettcher said.

CCTV cameras above the driver and from the door looking back at the driver had captured the moment, she said.

Swadling pleaded guilty to “indecent act in any place to which the public are permitted access”.

His solicitor Ryan McCullough said his client was undergoing psychiatric counselling for post traumatic stress disorder arising from his time as a tow truck driver when he had witnessed a number of fatal car crashes.

His client, who lost his job as a result, had no previous criminal history and at the time was going through a separation from his wife, he said.

Magistrate Howard Osborne placed Swadling on 12 months probation with no conviction recorded.