1:35pm Wednesday 1st July 2009
A 50-year-old man has been found not guilty of indecently exposing himself to a teenage girl in the showers of a water park.
A 14-year-old girl and her teenage friend pointed out Athula Ranawaka-Arachchige as the tattooed man that had deliberately pulled his shorts down to expose himself at the Jarman Park, Hemel Hempstead leisure facility on August 8, last year.
The married father-of-two, of Whippendell Road, Watford, visited the park alone while his family were on holiday in Italy, a jury heard.
During a trial at St Albans Crown Court the girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said they first spotted the defendant while queuing for one of the rides - the rapids.
When they later went to the showers to warm up they saw the same “short Asian man with a big belly and anchor tattoo” by the lockers.
The girls said the man waited for them to be alone in the showers before getting in next to them.
The girls giggled because the man appeared to “have a lump” in his shorts, the court heard.
One of the girls said the man then pulled down the front of his shorts to reveal his erect penis.
The girls told an aunt that had come to pick them up from McDondalds and the pool management were informed. Ranawaka-Arachchige was arrested while still inside the venue.
During his summing up to the jury Judge John Plumstead berated the “shocking” police investigation.
He singled out for criticism officer PC Smith, who had suggested that a man of Ranawaka-Arachchige's age, who was a non-swimmer, could only have been at the leisure park to get up to no good.
Judge Plumstead said: “These leisure parks are to play rather than serious swimming, so the rather crass attitude of PC Smith saying: 'We know what you are about going to a swimming place if you don't swim' is a stupid view.”
The court was told the defendant had never been in trouble before and the baker was a “gentleman”, well liked by the all female staff at the Co-op where he works.
The “good father and husband” was not able to join his family for the whole holiday abroad as he had not built up enough time off.
After a shift baking, he decided to try out Aquasplash and while there, a Sri Lankan interpreter told the court: “I participated in a number of the activities”.
He said he did not notice any young girls in particular, and did not recall seeing either of the two girls who formed the charge, adding: “I certainly did not expose myself to anyone, let alone them.”
The jury of six men and six women took an hour-and-a-half to find the defendant not guilty of indecent exposure on Tuesday.
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