Locklan Raymond Lancaster pleads guilty to stealing, urinating in public

A childhood ‘chroming’ habit led to string of ‘disgusting’ offences by a homeless man in his 20s including defecating in front of a medical clinic.

Locklan Raymond Lancaster's string of offences were due to a cognitive impairment caused by a "chroming" habit begun when he was seven years old, a Bundaberg court heard. Picture: File

A homeless man who engaged in “chroming” from a young age went on a crime spree around the Bundaberg CBD before defecating in front of a medical clinic.

Locklan Raymond Lancaster pleaded guilty in Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Wednesday to a string of charges including stealing, urinating in a public place and wilful damage of police property.

Lancaster’s defence lawyer, Craig Ryan, told the court his client had engaged in “chroming” - the inhalation of substances including glue, petrol, butane and aerosols - from the age of seven through to his mid-teens, which caused him to suffer “a significant cognitive impairment because of the lack of development of his brain”.

As a result of his cognitive impairment, Mr Ryan told the court Lancaster, 25, was “the author of his own demise” and had been living “a solitary lifestyle on the streets”, resisting attempts by his father to have him placed in a men’s shelter or receive other support services.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Vicki Kennedy-Grills told the court Lancaster went through a spate of petty thieving from April to September 2023 , including stealing a $149 mobile phone from Kmart Bundaberg, a $25 bottle of hemp oil from Chippindall’s Newsagency, five bottles of perfume with total value of $128.95 from Chemist Discount Centre and two bluetooth speakers and a four-back of butane gas cylinders with total value of $50 from Big W.

CCTV footage showed Lancaster walked through Sugarland Shopping Centre around 8.30pm when most stores were closed and checked the cash registers at pop-up stores throughout the centre, before stealing a bicycle belonging to a cleaner who was working in the shopping centre at the time.

In a separate incident, the court was told Lancaster defecated and urinated on the footpath outside a physiotherapy and allied health clinic, wiping his feces on the footpath with his hands.

Lancaster's offending including the theft of two bluetooth speakers and a four-back of butane gas cylinders from Big W.

The medical centre engaged a forensic cleaner to clean the footpath outside the front door so that their customers could enter the business.

The court was told that after he was arrested and placed in the Bundaberg Watchouse, Lancaster masturbated in view of female prisoners who were in the adjoining exercise area and wiped his semen on the floor of his cell, with police station staff having to clean the floor of the cell.

Mr Ryan told the court Lancaster had been diagnosed with a psychosis, but had not received regular treatment due to him not attending scheduled appointments.

The court heard when Lancaster had stayed in men’s shelters he had been asked to leave due to matters of personal hygiene, with Lancaster “not regarding it as necessary to wash, shower or bathe or do anything other members of the shelter or society in general regard as appropriate personal hygiene behaviour”.

While Lancaster had formerly lived with his father in his pensioner-assisted accommodation, the court heard he had been told his lease would be terminated if Lancaster returned to live with him.

Magistrate Edwina Rowan took into account Lancaster’s cognitive impairment from his drug use, but told him some of his behaviour was “disgusting”.

“We live in a civilised society where people do not simply defecate on the footpath and they simply do not masturbate wherever and whenever they feel like it,” Ms Rowan said.

Lancaster was convicted of five counts of stealing after previous conviction, two counts of wilful damage, one count of wilful damage of police property, one count of urinating in a public place and one count of breach of bail condition.

He was sentenced to three months’ prison with immediate release on parole and nine months’ probation, and ordered to pay $150 in restitution to the owner of the bicycle Lancaster stole from Sugarland Shopping Centre.

Convictions were recorded.