A carer who exposed himself to two different women on a secluded Aberdeen footpath won’t be put on the sex offenders register – after prosecutors accepted his actions were not sexually motivated.
Enzo Rota – who has worked as a support worker for disabled people – intentionally exposed his penis to the women on the old Deeside railway line near Cults on two occasions 20 minutes apart.
The 22-year-old’s lawyer said “some people will be surprised” that the Crown did not treat his public indecency as a sexual offence.
The Press and Journal asked the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service to explain the law around non-sexual public indecency cases, but they declined.
Instead, it was suggested we seek our own independent legal guidance to explain their legislation.
Victim disgusted by Enzo Rota’s behaviour
Rota was originally charged with exposing himself in a sexual manner and for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification.
However, the Crown accepted a guilty plea after the sexual element was removed from the wording of the charge.
Fiscal depute Sophia Ramzan told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that at around 10am one woman was running along the railway line near to the Boxcar Coffee in Cults with her dog when her attention was drawn to Rota.
He was standing on one of the footpaths and she continued running along her route.
However, on her way back and as she passed by the same spot, she observed Rota still standing there, only this time his penis was exposed over the top of his trousers and over the waistband of his underwear.
“The complainer ran past him and stated that he was ‘disgusting’ before leaving the area and reporting him to the police,” Ms Ramzan said.
At around 10.20am the same day, a second woman was walking along the footpath with her dog when she saw Rota.
She saw that his hand was around his exposed penis, so she quickly left the area and contacted the police.
In the dock, Rota pleaded guilty to two charges of public indecency.
No explanation … other than stress
Defence solicitor Michael Burnett described his client’s actions as an “inexplicable series of offending”.
“Mr Rota can offer no rational explanation for why he did it, other than the stress he was under,” the solicitor said.
“That is the only explanation he can offer – he did it and he admits it.
“I’m not trying to minimise what he did, but this is not classified as a sexual offence – some people will be surprised that it isn’t but that’s the situation we’re in.”
Sheriff Gordon Lamont told Rota: “What an extremely unpleasant situation those two innocent complainers found themselves in while just out for some exercise, with you exposing yourself.
“You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself.
“The fact that you can’t explain why you did this is of some concern to the court.”
Flasher’s conviction reported
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Lamont made Rota, of John Street, Aberdeen, subject to a community payback order with supervision for two years and ordered him to undertake 150 hours of unpaid work.
He also ordered Rota to pay each of his victims £300 in compensation.
On the social media site LinkedIn, Rota described himself as a social care worker who is “open to work” and “actively applying”.
However, a local charity where he previously volunteered for a year, starting in January 2022, has reported Rota’s conviction to Disclosure Scotland, the body that runs the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme.
The PVG ensures that people who are unsuitable to work with children and protected adults cannot do regulated work.
The regulator, the Scottish Social Services Council, has not yet suspended Rota, who remains registered as a social care worker.
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