A middle-aged Aucklander's late night public display of his sexual fetish was exposed in the Whangarei District Court yesterday.
The tradesman, happily married for 25 years and with two adult children, had donned woman's clothes and a balloon-laden bra before acting indecently in a Whangarei street, the court was told.
Judge James
O'Donovan granted name suppression for the man, aged in his 50s, and discharged him without conviction after he pleaded guilty to performing an indecent act in a public place.
The man's own shame and the 10 hours he had spent in police custody was punishment enough, Judge O'Donovan said.
There was nothing to suggest the man posed a risk to public safety, he said.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Ken Andrews said the man had drunk a six-pack of beer and a bottle of wine in a Whangarei motel room on Tuesday night.
"He then got dressed into a summer top, petticoat, black knickers and bra, black suspender belt and stockings," Mr Andrews said.
The man had also placed balloons filled with water inside the cups of the bra, he said.
Mr Andrews said at about 1am yesterday the man had walked to Hatea Dr, where he began to behave indecently on the footpath next to the roadway.
Police received phone calls from several motorists.
A police dog tracking team found the man a short time later in bush along Hatea Dr.
Mr Andrews said the man told police: "I don't know whether it is an exhibitionist fantasy, I don't know."
Defence lawyer Roger Bowden said the man had been happily married for 25 years and had two adult children.
The man had been exercising his fetish in private for some considerable time but was unlikely to repeat the actions of that morning, Mr Bowden said.
The amount of alcohol that the man had consumed may have lowered his inhibitions, Mr Bowden said.
