A “COMPLETE loner” has been banned from going near a Swindon college after he was found to “deliberately target certain young females” and expose himself to them.

Andrew James Keen narrowly avoided going to prison on Tuesday after magistrates heard he asked a 17-year-old New College student to sign his skirt with lipstick before exposing himself to her.

The next day, he asked a 16-year-old girl to give him her clothes before asking for her number, and the following day he approached another teenage girl at a bus stop outside the college.

The offences occurred over three days in September 2021 and left the teenagers feeling “confused and shocked”, “concerned” and “scared and uncomfortable” respectively.

Prosecutor Kate Prince told Swindon Magistrates’ Court that the victim of the exposure incident noticed Keen, who was wearing female clothing, walking towards her.

“He asked if he could have her top and bottoms for a charity,” she said. “She felt confused by the comment. He asked if she could sign his skirt for charity.”

Then, Keen, now aged 41, asked her to sign his skirt for charity, and as she stood back up, he lifted his top, exposing himself. He then asked for a picture, which the victim went along with as she was “confused and shocked”.

“She felt it best to do what he asked as she was scared what would happen otherwise,” Ms Prince added. It was the picture which later identified Keen in police enquiries.

Mitigating, Sambreen Arif said that her client has been “a complete loner at home”, with “confusions with his sexuality” that certain older generations in his family could not accept.

She added that he had not been in a relationship since his early 20s, saying his motivation for the encounters was “more an opportunity to engage with people he thought, or woman he thought, would be more open to the idea of his sexuality”.

“As soon as he has been spoken to by the police, his offending has stopped. He has abided by strict bail conditions.”

She went on to say that he would benefit from one-to-one support with probation and that he has expressed remorse for the incidents.

“None of them were very long encounters, they were minutes of conversation, and the exposure in itself was a lift of the top and finished,” she went on to say. “It could have been worse is what I’m saying.”

Keen had previously pleaded guilty to one count of exposure and two counts of causing harassment, alarm or distress.

But magistrates were shocked by the incident and placed it in a higher bracket that the prosecutor.

Chairman of the bench, Martin Clarke, told the defendant, of Clanfield Road, Park North: “We’ve been thinking long and hard about what to do with you.

“What’s worrying here is that you deliberately target certain young females, these are young girls, young ladies, just very young.

“One of them has actually said she was shocked and confused, she didn’t have a clue what you were talking about. That’s worrying Mr Keen.”

They said they were considering sending him to prison, but were convinced to instead implement a two-year community order. It will include 50 rehabilitation activity days, as well as a 12-month exclusion zone around the New College campuses on Queen’s Drive and in North Star.

He must also take part in 200 hours of unpaid work, plus pay costs of £85 and a £95 victim surcharge.