05/07/2008 19:04 - (SA)
Cocky flasher’s video call ended in blushes
MARIECHEN WALDNER
AN ALLEGED Bronkhorstspruit flasher probably regrets the day he traded in ancient tradition for modern technology.
In the good old days flashers were lonely exhibitionists roaming the streets in long coats, searching for opportunities to expose themselves to people of the opposite sex. Modern flashers, it seems, do their thing differently.
Hermanus Coetzer’s cellphone and his company’s client list reportedly opened vistas of technological advancement to this 26-year-old flasher, employed as a technician by a local security concern.
But his alleged attempt to modernise an age old vice lasted only two months – an expensive cockup indeed – and led him straight to court.
He appeared in the Welbekend Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, accused of making live video calls to three women and using his cellphone camera to transmit not only graphic images of the contents of his pants, but also what he does with it. He was bust by a woman, a no-nonsense police sergeant who does not take kindly to flashers bothering pregnant women.
It is claimed Coetzer was under the cock-eyed impression that his new method left no evidence to link him to his crimes. No face to recognise, only an unidentifiable appendage. No identity parades allowing his victims to point him out. But he was obviously wrong.
Sergeant Marinda Stoltz of the Welbekend police station, who arrested him, said she did not have to employ a lot of brain power to catch this cockerel. “With the help of Vodacom the suspect was traced and arrested at his workplace,” she said.
First thing he flashed when she confronted him was a cocky question, the sergeant said. “Where is your evidence?” he wanted to know.
Exactly how the alleged cellphone flasher was busted, she refused to say. “The case is still at a sensitive stage. No further information can be given.”
Coetzer appeared in court on charges of sexual assault and sexual abuse. Magistrate Martinus Kruger granted him bail of R3 000 and postponed the case to July 24.
The security technician allegedly obtained his victims’ cellphone numbers from his company’s client list.
He furthermore “had knowledge” of their security systems. His first two alleged victims were in advanced stages of pregnancy. The third, according to the sergeant’s statement, was “gladly not pregnant”.
The flasher allegedly phoned them between seven and eight in the mornings, just after their husbands had left for work. He made live video calls to them, demanding to see their faces, showing them only the bits below his belly.
With insider knowledge of their husbands’ movements, he harassed them “day and night”, according to the sergeant.
The sergeant appealed to all women in the Grootfontein, Bashewa and Tierpoort areas to contact her on 072 349 3994 if similar incidents had happened to them.
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