Kids flashed: ‘Every parent’s nightmare’

A nine-year-old girl is now spooked by every strange car she sees after a man exposed himself to her while she was walking home from school in West Auckland this week.

Auckland resident Toyah Brooking was in her garden on Monday afternoon when her daughter and son, 8, came running through the gate, screaming: ‘‘there’s a naked man in the bush, mummy!’’

Her heart pounding, Brooking ran out to the bushes where the man approached her daughter in the suburb of Te Atatu¯ but he was gone. Police were also unable to find him.

Almost a week on, her daughter is still shaken.

Brooking had just started letting her children walk to and from Peninsula Primary School alone, around 600 metres from home, but no longer felt safe to do so.

‘‘It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.’’

Brooking recounted her experience as figures released by police under the Official Information Act show more than 1200 people have been arrested for similar crimes in the past five years.

Between 2013-17, 1207 people were charged with ‘offences against public order sexual standards’, which includes flashing, streaking, lewdness, as well as bestiality and necrophilia.

Exhibitionism fits within a larger group of behaviours called paraphilia: sexual behaviours or impulses characterised by intense fantasies and persistent urges.

Shane Harris, spokesman for Safe Network, which provides specialised treatment for those with harmful sexual behaviours, said these people are often desensitised to the difference between public and private spaces.

People under the influence of drugs or who are intoxicated can also present this kind of behaviour. For some these compulsions are part of a mental health condition, called exhibitionistic disorder. For others it is more about the thrill of being seen.

Around 200 people sought help from Victim Support after a ‘sexual affront’ last year, chief executive Kevin Tso said.

Everyone handles trauma in their own way, and witnesses would only occasionally seek support, he said.

‘‘It could be just needing someone to offload to about the trauma of the experience.’’

While the charge carries a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment, sentences for flashing can also include fines, community service, and rehabilitation.