Christopher Neale Roberts caught masturbating in public again

A man previously sentenced multiple times for public sexual acts that included garden tools and ornaments has been caught in the act yet again.

Christopher Neale Roberts pleaded guilty before Toowoomba Magistrates Court to committing an indecent act in a public place.

A serial public masturbator was out of jail less than 24 hours when he was back in Toowoomba pulling the same stunt.

Christopher Neale Roberts had been released from Woodford Correctional Centre about 10am, last Friday, February 4, having served five months in custody for public masturbation and other related matters and made his way back to Toowoomba.

CCTV cameras covering the car park of a private hospital in Goggs St captured the 34-year-old look straight into one of the cameras before removing his penis from his trousers and walking about the car park while masturbating, police prosecutor Natalie Bugden told Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Monday.

Later, about 5am the next day, the CCTV cameras captured him walking about the car park naked while masturbating before, at one point, lying down on the ground, lifting his legs in the air while continuing to masturbate and poking himself in the bottom with his finger, Sergeant Bugden said.

He then again looked directly at a CCTV camera before putting his clothes back on and walking off, she said.

Toowoomba Courthouse in Hume St

A medical director of the facility called police after later viewing the CCTV footage, the court heard.

Roberts was found soon after in the toilets at the bus interchange, Sgt Bugden said.

The 34-year-old Roberts spent the weekend in the watch house before appearing via video link from a watch house cell to plead guilty to one count of “indecent act in any place to which the public are permitted access”, as the charge read on the court papers.

Roberts had been sentenced to six months in jail, to be released after two months, by the Toowoomba Magistrates Court in August 2021 for similar offending, the court heard.

He had received another six-month jail term when he appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court in November for similar offending in which he involved garden tools and ornaments in his public sexual display.

Duty lawyer Brad Skuse, of Skuse Graham Lawyers, told the court his client was subject to parole when he committed the offences so he would have to be given a parole eligibility date.

“It’s likely any (jail) time imposed today he will serve in its entirety,” he said.

His client instructed he was intoxicated at the time and wanted to finalise the matters as soon as possible, Mr Skuse said.

Magistrate Howard Osborne sentenced Roberts to six months in jail but ordered he be eligible to apply for release on parole as of April 7 after having served two months.