Blake Erickson: Defence Housing Australia property manager posted video masturbating on Sydney train

An act usually used to blow off steam was done by a defence-linked property manager on two public trains — behaviour many would consider off the rails.

Passengers on two Sydney trains came inches away from viewing a very different kind of scenery to that of their usual commutes, thanks to the obscene exposure of an Defence Housing Australia property manager.

Blake Joseph Erickson posted several videos of himself masturbating on board a train to his Twitter account which had thousands of followers, along with some bizarre hashtags and comments bragging about almost being caught.

That was revealed in facts tendered to Downing Centre Local Court, which found the 29-year-old committed the crimes on March 23 and April 4.

The facts state on the first occasion, the 29-year-old from Mascot uploaded 10-second video while sitting on a train and wearing a white button up shirt, beige pants and a brown belt.

He was holding a phone in his right hand, with his other hand holding his penis through the zipper of his pants.

Blake Ericksen was charged with indecent exposure in public and using a carriage service to offend

The video, which had been alternating between showing his face and his penis, panned away and stopped when he was disturbed by other commuters.

Erickson posted the video to the now-deleted public Twitter account called @theotterbloke, which had nearly 3000 followers, along with the hashtags #gaysydney #gaypublic #gaycruising #gayaussie.

The tweet with the video read: “wanted to keep w***ing on the train today but I was almost caught by a guy walking by”.

Two weeks later, Erickson braved a much longer video — totalling 54 seconds — in which he was sitting on a train with open legs, an unzipped jumper and black shorts that were down to his ankles.

The comment on that video, which also clearly showed him masturbating, was posted to the same Twitter account along with the comment: “RT if you like to get your c**k out on the train”.

That video received 10.8k views and 540 reactions.

Police, who were alerted to the behaviour, arrested Erickson and found the videos on his phone had been uploaded within 24 to 48 hours of being recorded.

Erickson escaped conviction at Downing Centre Local Court. Picture: John Grainger

According to police documents tendered to court, geolocation tools found Erickson had acted in similar ways on buses as well as trains on several occasions since last October.

Erickson’s lawyer asked the court not to convict his client, telling the court his client worked as a property manager for Defence Housing Australia (DHA) which supplies housing and related services to Australian Defence Force members and their families.

Magistrate Gareth Christofi said the offences were serious, especially since they were repeated and there was the potential for there to be others, including children, to see what would be “highly traumatic” acts to them.

But he noted Erickson’s clean criminal record, references that suggest he was otherwise of good character and his apology letter accepting responsibility and stating he was highly embarrassed by his actions.

“(His psychiatrist) believes at the time he was having difficulties with his mental health and he’s taken active steps to address those issues … (being) ADHD and generalised anxiety disorder”.

“I’m satisfied something like this is unlikely to happen again”.

Magistrate Christofi sentenced Erickson to three 12-month conditional release orders without conviction for two charges of exposing oneself in public and one charge of using a carriage service to harass or offend.