FLASHER IN A RABBIT MASK DETAINED TO PROTECT PUBLIC

PERSISTENT OFFENDER POSES SIGNIFICANT DANGER, JUDGE RULES

A MAN convicted of four counts of indecent exposure has been ordered to be detained in hospital.

David Rosen, 51, who was wearing a rabbit mask, flashed passing firefighters when they intervened as he was harassing a woman in Welford Road on November 11.

He was also seen doing yoga naked near the Clock Tower, in Leicester, on August 23 last year.

After hearing medical evidence, Judge Timothy Spencer QC said: “I’m satisfied that (detention) is necessary to protect the public from serious harm.”

A MAN who exposed himself in Leicester while wearing a rabbit mask and did yoga naked at the Clock Tower has been detained to “protect the public from significant danger”.

David Rosen, 51, was spotted harassing a woman by a passing crew of firefighters in Welford Road, at 7.45pm on November 11, while wearing the mask.

He then dropped his trousers to his knees, fully exposing himself, after firefighters intervened.

Rosen was arrested and taken to Euston Street police station, where he asked a woman appointed to help vulnerable people in custody to expose herself while he was committing a lewd act in his cell.

Leicester Crown Court was told Rosen was then interviewed by officers about his behaviour in Welford Road and told them he was following a woman who was crying because he wanted to rape her.

He was also seen doing yoga naked in full view of onlookers, including parents with children, near the Clock Tower, in Leicester city centre, on August 23 last year.

A psychiatric assessment concluded the defendant was mentally fit to stand trial, but Rosen directed a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse at the city’s senior resident judge, Timothy Spencer QC, before his trial had started.

He also reclined in a chair in the dock, with bare feet dangling over the back of another seat, and performed a prolonged handstand, revealing his bare belly.

He then refused to attend his trial and stayed in the court cells while proceedings went ahead without him.

He was convicted of four counts of indecent exposure.

After the verdict, Judge Spencer ordered a psychiatric report to ascertain if Rosen was genuinely mentally ill or “attention seeking”.

Assessments by two different specialist doctors then diagnosed him with a mental health disorder, which required detention and hospital treatment.

Tom Edwards, defending, said he could offer no mitigation on his client’s behalf as he would not provide instructions.

Addressing the court by speaker phone from the Herschel Prins Centre at Glenfield Hospital, the defendant’s treating clinician, Dr Imran Jamil, recommended a hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act and a restriction order under Section 41 of the same law.

No specific reference was made to the nature of the diagnosis, but Dr Jamil said a bed was available to Rosen and that it had been explained to him that he “needs to co-operate with his treatment in hospital if he wants to go back into the community”.

“Hopefully, we will be able to help him,” Dr Jamil said.

Rosen has previous convictions, including for robbery in 2006 and 2015, cannabis possession, harassment, assaulting a constable and multiple shoplifting, public order and damage offences, for which he received a variety of sentences, including jail and, once, a hospital order.

Sentencing him to detention in hospital for treatment, Judge Spencer said: “I observed the defendant at an earlier hearing. He was a fit and robustly-built man and actually rather threatening.

“He has a very long history of psychiatric problems and has been in and out of mental health units for a large part of his life.

“He is a persistent offender and I’m satisfied that it’s necessary to protect the public from serious harm.”