A man who exposed himself to two teenage girls and danced towards them waving his arms in the air was arrested after the mother of one of them challenged him outside a nearby shop.
Daniel Tanase denied a charge of exposure, claiming the girls had made it up after he refused to give them a light – but was convicted by Coventry magistrates.
And at Warwick Crown Court, Tanase (25) of Freeman Street, Edgwick, Coventry, was jailed for three months.
But Judge Anthony Potter, who ordered him to register as a sex offender for five year, told him that because of the time he had spent in prison on remand, he would be freed straight away.
Prosecutor Glyn Samuel said that at the time of the incident in May last year Tanase was on bail over an earlier allegation of exposure.
“But that matter did not proceed to trial because the witness, a police officer, had been unable to attend court after being run down and dragged along the road by a car.”
Mr Samuel said that on May 10 three girls aged 17 and 18 were in Gun Hill, Coventry, when they saw Tanase, who they knew from the area as someone known as A.
The 18-year-old realised Tanase was staring at them and demanded: “What are you looking at?”
His response was to call her a ‘little tramp,’ which the girls treated as a joke before becoming nervous as he then walked towards them, exposing himself.
One of the younger girls ran off, but the other two stood their ground.
Exposed, Tanase began to dance towards them with his hands in the air, getting to within 15 feet of them.
Tanase then covered himself and walked away, and the girls ran to the nearby home of one of them and told her mother who then drove them round looking for him.
They spotted a trolley he used for collecting scrap metal outside a local convenience store, where the girl’s mother confronted him, but he simply walked away.
One of the girls took a picture of him on her phone, and after the incident was reported to the police he was identified from that image and footage from a CCTV camera at the store.
Tanase was arrested at the beginning of June, but when he was interviewed he claimed the girls had approached him and asked for a light, but he refused.
He claimed that was all that had happened, and that the allegation had been made up, but was convicted by the magistrates – who it was said found he had been provoked before exposing himself.
Mr Samuel added that Tanase was on bail until January 9 when he was remanded in custody after being arrested over another sexual allegation which has since been dropped.
Adam Western, for Tanase, who was appearing over a video link from the jail, pointed out: “He has been in custody for four months and two days.”
And Judge Potter indicated: “I propose to pass a sentence which will lead to his immediate release.”
He told Tanase through a Romanian interpreter: “It must have been frightening and unsettling for the two young women involved.
“It’s made more serious because you were on bail for a similar allegation, although I note that allegation was not pursued.
“But I take account of everything I have read about you in the two reports on the system, and I also take account of the girls’ conduct towards you prior to your exposure.”
