Professional golf assistant guilty of drive-by flashing offences in Leicestershire

A professional golf assistant has been convicted of flashing at young women while driving past them.

Alexander Cooper, who was working at Melton Mowbray Golf Club at the time, smiled at some of the young women, while behaving lewdly.

They were either walking or jogging along the roadsides when they encountered him in a red Hyundai car.

Cooper denied eight indecent exposure charges, committed in East Goscote, Quorn, Mountsorrel and Loughborough, between January and August last year, but was found guilty by a jury at Leicester Crown Court yesterday.

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The 30-year-old, then of Leopold Street, Loughborough, claimed it was a case of mistaken identity – despite being picked out by some witnesses in an ID procedure. His car registration was also noted.

After the unanimous guilty verdicts, the judge criticised misleading evidence of the defendant's mother, Margaret Cooper, of Frisby-on-the-Wreake.

Mrs Cooper had told the jury that at the time of the first flashing offence, on January 3 last year, her son phoned her to discuss seat covers she was making for his dining room chairs – the inference was that he was not out in his car indecently exposing himself.

Mrs Cooper said she knew that to be correct, because her husband, son (the defendant) and his partner all went to Low Woods Furnishings, in Belton, to buy material for the seat covers two days earlier, on January 1. She then went on to e-mail the store to confirm if it was open.

Yesterday, Judge Michael Fowler said: "It's potentially a very serious episode, not simply of giving evidence but attempting to have something confirmed that would have given it greater validity than it ought to have done."

A juror had asked if Low Woods was open on New Year's Day and an overnight police inquiry was made.

However, Mrs Cooper, after she gave evidence, also e-mailed the firm saying she visited the business on January 1 last year, and asked for confirmation the store was open on that day.

After the defence case closed on Friday, prosecutor Scott Brady was given permission to reopen the Crown's case.

He said the furnishing store was not open on January 1 and revealed Mrs Cooper had make an e-mail inquiry about it during the trial.

Mr Brady, in his closing speech, said Mrs Cooper's account about visiting the store blew the January 3 alibi "out of the water".

Heidi Kubik, defending, told the jury in her closing speech Mrs Cooper may have been genuinely mistaken when giving evidence.

She said despite the jury's verdicts, Alexander Cooper maintained his innocence. He will be sentenced in six weeks.