Belfast flasher accused gets bail to attend Christian Fellowship meetings

Jason Leonard Shaw, from Coolfin Street, is facing four separate charges of exposing himself on several dates in August and October 2014.

The 45-year-old has already been granted bail with several conditions imposed – which include a ban on him entering an ‘exclusion zone’ in the Queen’s and Botanic area where he is alleged to have carried out the offences.

Shaw’s solicitor Jonathan Burke made an application to vary his client’s bail to allow him to enter the exclusion zone once a week to attend a Christian Fellowship meeting at premises on University Avenue.

Mr Burke said that during the meeting, Shaw would be accompanied by a chaperone from the fellowship, adding Shaw used this service when he was a remand prisoner.

Crown prosecutor Simon Jenkins said police were objecting to the bail variation on the grounds there was a fear he would commit further offences.

Mr Jenkins also expressed concerns that the chaperone may not be able to monitor Shaw during the entirety of the weekly meetings, adding the fear of further offending was set against a backdrop of Queen’s University being “in session at present”.

Judge Gordon Kerr QC expressed reluctance at denying someone the opportunity to attend such a meeting, and agreed to vary Shaw’s bail to allow him to attend the meeting once a week. The judge did, however, order that Shaw stay in the company of the chaperone, telling Mr Burke his client was “not allowed to leave the premises”.