EX-COP FLASHED HIS PRIVATE PARTS FROM WINDOW AT TWO GIRLS
A FORMER policeman exposed himself to an eight-month pregnant teenager near a childrens' playpark.The 19-year-old girl was eating chips with her 16-year-old pal at the Greenock campus grounds of James Watt College, in Finnart Street, when George Taggart, above, exposed himself from the window of his flat across the road.
The girls noticed the sordid 53-year-old watching them bare-chested from the window of his Nelson Street home, before he revealed his private parts.
Greenock Sheriff Court heard the "disgusted" girls called the police because they were concerned about Taggart's actions close to a children's play park.
The 19-year-old told the court she saw his private parts, adding: 'When he stood up I saw he had no clothes on.
I was eight months pregnant and felt a bit uncomfortable - my friend was shaken.
'Because there is a play park at James Watt College, we decided to call the police.' Her friend, who was 16 at the time, said: 'I saw he had nothing on and looked away.' Asked by fiscal depute Nadine Dormer how she felt at the time she replied: 'I was disgusted.' After the girls called the police, they said they could see Taggart holding either "binoculars or a camcorder" up to his face.
Solicitor Jillian Melrose put it to her she only saw an individual’s movements within the flat, unconnected to anyone outside, and that she only saw someone’s naked chest.
The girl replied that she could see the region immediately above his naked private parts.
PC Martin Ward, 28, told the court: 'From the window you are looking directly at James Watt College, particularly, I noted you can see a small, children’s playpark in the grounds.' Divorcee Taggart claimed he had stripped to the waist to wash his hair and was then combing it in the mirror in his front room.
He said: 'I don’t usually put my top back on until I comb my hair.
I may have been at the window.' When Ms Dormer asked if he had held anything up to his face, he said: 'My glasses are old and sometimes I hold them up to my face with two hands.' Police found a camcorder in his flat near the window, which he denied holding up to his face.
The court heard Taggart had been unemployed for 22 years after leaving the police force due to injury.
Taggart was found guilty of an offence of public indecency in that he did stand naked in front of the window at his flat in a state of undress and did expose his private parts in the presence of the two girls.
Sheriff Vincent Canavan said some of Taggart's evidence was "manifestly unreliable" and found him guilty.
Sheriff Canavan said he would decide if there was a significant sexual element to determine whether Taggart is to be placed on the Sex Offenders' Register when he returns for sentencing in January.
