A 62-year-old Burnaby man will serve his sentence in the community after pleading guilty to showing his genitals to unsuspecting women in public for the 15th time.
Kenneth Gordon Inkster was in Vancouver provincial court for sentencing last Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts of committing an indecent act in public.
The charges relate to incidents in Vancouver and Burnaby.
Asian women targeted
On June 11, 2021, Inkster was at the Salvation Army Thrift Store on East 12th Avenue in Vancouver in a long black trench coat – an item of clothing Crown prosecutor Ariel Bultz described as a "sort of tool of the trade," according to agreed facts presented at the sentencing.
Inkster exposed himself to a woman in one of the aisles.
Once she noticed him, the woman confronted him, telling him to put his penis away.
"You don't do that to people," she said, according to the agreed facts.
Inkster said he was sorry and left the area.
The woman identified Inkster in a photo lineup put together by police, and a search of his residence turned up clothing he had been seen wearing during the incident.
He pleaded guilty on Sept. 1, 2022.
A week later, however, he struck again, this time at the Oomomo Japan Living store inside Burnaby's Metrotown mall.
He followed a woman who was shopping at the store and exposed himself to her while she was looking at items on a low shelf, according to the facts.
The woman confronted him and he fled the scene, but she chased him and recorded him on her cellphone.
Inkster was charged after another search warrant turned up evidence linking him to that incident and two other Burnaby flashings – one at Oomomo on Dec. 27, 2021 and another at the Dollar Tree at 4040 Hastings St. on Jan. 11, 2022.
The Crown elected to proceed on only one of those incidents, according to Bultz.
Both victims in the cases Inkster was sentenced for last week were Asian women, and he told a psychiatrist he targeted Asian women, according to a court-ordered psychiatric report prepared in the case.
"He said he believes his exposing behaviour is maybe a deviant way of expressing his attraction towards Asian women," Bultz said.
'High risk for future sexual offending'
Inkster told the psychiatrist he had at times spent up to half a day seeking out an appropriate victim.
The psychiatric report concluded Inkster was at "high risk of future sexual offending" although there is no indication his flashing offences have escalated into "contact offences."
Bultz said Inkster should be sentenced to 16 to 18 months in jail followed by three years of probation.
He noted Inkster had 13 prior convictions for exposing himself and a history of breaching court ordered supervision conditions, violating them on at least seven occasions.
Inkster had also violated the conditions of a previous conditional sentence order, according to Bultz.
"That's part and parcel as to why the Crown will be opposed to a conditional sentence order," he said.
Defence lawyer Scott Wright, however, said a conditional sentence (a jail sentence served in the community) in the range of six months followed by probation was appropriate in the case.
He noted Inkster has been diagnosed with exhibitionistic disorder, a disorder listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
"I've been acting for Mr. Inkster for many years now," Wright told the court. "He has repeatedly come into my office and apologized and expressed empathy towards the folks who have been targeted by his behaviour. He is disturbed by it and wishes for it to stop."
Aside from his offences, Inkster has led a "very prosocial life" with steady employment throughout his adult life, according to Wright.
He noted Inkster was "on the right path" and hadn't had any issues on bail for 15 months.
He said Inkster was willing to do "whatever he can" not to end up back in court, including further counselling and taking testosterone-lowering drugs.
"The upside to a jail sentence is a brief period of warehousing, where, of course, yes, there will be no further offending during that time, but that does nothing to reduce the likelihood of further offending upon release," Wright said.
Sentence to be served in the community
In the end, B.C. provincial court Judge David St. Pierre handed Inkster a 12-month conditional sentence followed by three years of probation.
He noted Inkster had a diagnosed mental illness and that he had stayed offence free in the 15 months after his last offence.
During the first six months of his conditional sentence, Inkster will be on a 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew.
He must report to a forensic outpatient clinic for assessment, treatment and counselling.
If he doesn't consent to treatment, he must immediately inform his conditional sentence supervisor and report to the court.
He is banned from contacting his victims and from going to the Salvation Army Thrift Store on East 12th Avenue in Vancouver and all Oomomo stores in B.C.
He is also banned from being in any public place without clothes that fully cover his "buttocks and genital region."
"I accept that you're troubled by your activities and your behaviour, which seems to be very difficult to manage," St. Pierre told Inkster, "but you have the obligation to take the help that's being offered and that's available to you. You have to try everything that you possibly can to prevent this from happening. That’s your obligation."
Despite Wright saying his client was leery of public speaking, Inkster addressed the court after St. Pierre delivered his sentence.
He apologized to the community, his family, friends and "especially the victims."
"I wish I could change everything, and I will try to do my best," he said.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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