And it wasn’t the first time he had done it
Patrick Taylor appeared at Hull Crown Court. He admitted an offence of exposure.(Image: Hull Live )
A serial flasher left a young woman “heartbroken” at having to “relive” the ordeal of him shamelessly exposing himself to her while he was standing at his window – naked from the waist down. She was innocently walking down the street when she suddenly saw him staring straight at her while he touched himself intimately and had no boxer shorts on.
Patrick Taylor had done similar things in the past but he has been warned that he faces “longer and longer in prison” if he carries on with his shocking antics, Hull Crown Court heard. Taylor, 28, of Anlaby Road, west Hull, but recently in custody on remand, denied an offence of exposure on May 23 but he was convicted by a jury on October 23 after a trial.
Jane Rapin, prosecuting, told the trial that people on Anlaby Road might expect to see some things as they were walking along – but they would not expect to see a half-naked man exposing himself at the window of a residential property. “This is not, after all, Amsterdam,” said Miss Rapin.
The young woman had never seen Taylor before. She left her boyfriend’s home at 10.30am and began the 30-minute walk home. She decided to stop at shops on Anlaby Road but, shortly before arriving at them, she noticed a man naked from the waist down standing in the window of a property and touching himself sexually.
“She realised that he was looking straight at her,” said Miss Rapin. The woman was “shocked and distressed” and looked away. She telephoned her boyfriend and contacted her mother.
She intended to call the police but realised that she did not know the exact address where it happened so walked back there. All the blinds were now shut and there was nobody at the window. She reported the matter to the police and Taylor was arrested on May 25.
The young woman told the court: “He was standing with the blinds wide open. He had a big blue T-shirt on.” She was “100 per cent certain” that Taylor was naked from the waist down and had bare legs.
“I could see that someone was looking at me,” she said. “I was directly in front of him. I hurried along as quickly as I could. I was on the path and he was in the window.
“I instantly looked away with shock and then I looked back and he was still looking at me. I tried to go as fast as I could. I was worried that he was going to start following me.”
Judge John Thackray KC told Taylor at a sentencing hearing: “You were convicted on the most overwhelming evidence.” The victim was “literally heartbroken” at being forced to “relive” the ordeal by having to give evidence to the trial – and it was “not the first time” that Taylor had behaved in a similar way.
“If it were not for the time that you have spent in custody, you would be going to prison,” said Judge Thackray. “You have spent almost three months in prison and that’s a critical factor when taking into account the appropriate sentence. It is aggravated by your previous conviction.”
Taylor was given 15 days’ rehabilitation and a 26-day probation service sex offender treatment programme. He will have to register as a sex offender for five years and he was ordered to pay a £114 victims’ surcharge.
“If you don’t cooperate or if you commit any further offences in the next 18 months, you will be brought back to court,” said Judge Thackray. “I am told you will cooperate with this order. It’s designed to prevent you from reoffending.
“If you don’t, you will find the sentences will get longer and longer and you will spend longer and longer in prison. It’s designed to rehabilitate you and protect the public.”
At the original trial, defence barrister Verity Barnes claimed that the young woman had only a “fleeting glimpse” of the man for “an extremely brief period of time” and she was “mistaken” about him being half-naked because he had boxer shorts on, but they were concealed under his T-shirt. “He was just looking out of his window,” claimed Miss Barnes.
Taylor claimed that he was expecting a delivery that day and that he was behind a pillar. He denied exposing himself.
The jury was told that Taylor had a previous conviction for exposure in similar circumstances from an incident on October 12, 2022. In March 2024, he had been given 25 days’ rehabilitation.