By CHERIE DONNELLAN
A Wendouree man undressed behind bushes and then exposed himself to a female as she ran along Barwon River in Ocean Grove, a Geelong Magistrates’ court heard on Wednesday.
Steven Dridan, of Grevillea Rd, removed his shorts and underwear behind a bush as the victim ran toward him on 13 May this year, police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Kerrie Moroney said.
The victim ran away from Dridan after noticing him in the bushes.
But when she turned to check Dridan’s distance from her, he “took hold of his penis and waved it around”, Sen Const Moroney said.
The victim was “frightened and distressed” over the incident, the court heard.
Dridan admitted to the wilful exposure charge on 17 May, telling arresting officers: “I don’t know why I do it, I can’t explain it”.
Defence counsel Amanda Hurst said psychologists had recently diagnosed Dridan with “severe clinical depression”, possible “gender identity disorder” and a mental condition which caused the lewd behaviour.
Ms Hurst said Dridan was previously suicidal after facing “public derision” for “wearing a ladies swimsuit and offending in the gardens at Ballarat”.
He was also caught “masturbating outside a hairdresser’s [shop]” in Ballarat.
“He’s at a loss to understand why he’s offending this way,” she told the court.
His offending had “ruined his life” and he now “isolated” himself from the public in the hope he could avoid further recidivism.
Dridan breached a two-year community corrections order when he committed the May offence, the court heard.
But Ms Hurst said Dridan claimed he failed to receive psychological or psychiatric diagnosis or treatment as part of the order’s requirements.
Magistrate Ron Saines requested an inquiry into Dridan’s documented psychological history and adjourned the matter until 7 November.
