Gordon Carmichael Reserve is popular with runners and walkers. Photo / Emma Houpt
A second woman says she was confronted by a naked man while walking through a Tauranga reserve and believes he is "intentionally seeking the shock effect".
She has spoken out after another woman shared her story in the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend about her "terrifying" encounter last week with a naked man in the same place.
The incidents have been taking place at Gordon Carmichael Reserve, between Bethlehem and Brookfield.
Now police are appealing for information to help identify a man after receiving a "small number" of reports relating to "sexual affronts" towards women in the reserve.
The latest to come forward is a Tauranga woman, who asked not to be named. She said she was walking her dog about 5.45pm on October 16 last year when she saw a man in the bushes.
The woman said she "stopped and observed" the "overconfident" man for three to five minutes, trying to see if he had any unique marks or tattoos on him.
He responded by performing a "confident" indecent act which she likened to a "performance", she said.
She described him as "uninhibited" and in her view was "intentionally seeking the shock effect".
"My personal opinion is he's targeting mature women."
The woman phoned the police and showed officers where it happened.
She said her observation of the man was similar to that the woman who spoke out at the weekend - 54-year-old Kara - described.
Kara's description was of a "thick" and "heavy-set" European with dark hair, dark eyes and a tanned complexion.
The woman who saw him in October believed he was aged between 30 and 40, and that he was "a bit taller", about 177cm (5ft 10) than Kara described.
The October witness said the next day, she contacted as "many people as I could in my neighbourhood".
She learned a naked man had been seen a week earlier by two women in the reserve.
"I then heard he was seen again just prior to Christmas and that he had used a pushbike to exit the reserve."
"Where this guy is deciding to perform is clever. He is well off Carmichael Rd for general observance."
A police spokeswoman said there were two reports made in relation to these incidents on October 16 and December 10.
Kara encountered the man about 5pm last Tuesday as she walked down a section of gravel track on the Brookfield side, on what some locals have dubbed Cardiac Hill.
She heard disturbing noises and a ''growling sound" coming from the bushes and a naked man performing an indecent act stepped out of the flax behind her, about 5m away.
Terrified, she ran home, stopping to tell a male runner heading that way.
Yesterday police put out an appeal for information to help identify a man after receiving a small number of reports.
"It is important to police that people are safe and feel safe and we are committed to holding this person to account," a police spokeswoman said.
She reminded people using the reserve to avoid the area if they were alone and at night.
University of Waikato senior lecturer in psychology and clinical psychologist Armon Tamatea said intense and recurring sexual urges, fantasies of exposing oneself to non-consenting people, impulsiveness and poor behaviour regulation were likely reasons behind this type of behaviour.
Tamatea said the high of risk-taking paired with sexual gratification were likely "payoffs" of the exhibitionism.
This type of encounter could cause distress for victims, bringing about feelings of being violated, he said.
"Despite understandable public anxieties... only a minority of exhibitionistic perpetrators escalate to contact sexual offending."
But he said given the impulsiveness of exhibitionism, it was likely this act had occurred before and would happen again in the future.
Bethlehem Walking Group co-leader Alison Shaw said she knew of some women who regularly walked through the reserve alone who were worried by the reports.
"We haven't had any incidents as a group, but yes, people are concerned," she said.
She said it was particularly frightening to hear of incidents like this happening in such a busy area.
"In a public space like that, where there normally are quite a few people around - it is just a bit concerning," she said.
Brookfield walking group captain Judy Young said she didn't know of anyone who had encountered a naked man in the reserve.
"It's a worry, but we haven't come across anything - and we are in that area often."
• Anyone with information should contact police on 105 and quote file number 220405/8985.