Matthew Douglas Twyne, 31, will serve another two years and two months in prison. He’s already been in jail for about three months for his crimes.
In May, he went to a dance school on Lemarchant Road, looked into the change room where children between 14 and 16 years old were, and pressed his bare penis against the glass. He was told to leave and he did, but came back shortly afterwards. Again, he was told to leave, and again, he came back.
The instructor took a video on her phone to submit as evidence.
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Man convicted of indecent exposure at dance school
Twyne was arrested and charged with unlawfully exposing his genitals to children younger than 16, carrying a concealed weapon (a hunting knife), six breaches of recognizance, failure to comply with a probation order and failure to comply with condition of undertaking. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison time Friday.
Madden took into account the fact that the defence said Twyne is “apologetic and embarrassed,” and willing to comply with counselling requirements. He also took into account Twyne’s lengthy record that began in 2001, which includes five indecent acts.
“He has a number of priors for violence-related offences, assaults and threats, some of which are quite dated, as well as several break and entries, again some of which are quite dated. He has many, I would say many, many priors for breaches of court orders and many priors for thefts,” said Madden.
Twyne has been incarcerated several times, and has already been added to the sex offender registry and given a DNA order.
“I find that he has little insight into his problems. He has not taken advantage of counselling offered to him in the past — at least not to the fullest extent possible. He is a poor, but hopefully not impossible candidate for rehabilitation, and he's a danger to the public,” Madden said.
“In the present case, he was out after curfew appeared to be under the influence, possessing a hunting knife, present at a dance studio where children were present — and in a building that has a daycare. All of these points, all of these activities, all of this contrary to the orders that he was on. And while there, he exposed himself and continued to return to the building, I believe it was twice he went back, even after he was told police had been called.
“It is difficult to imagine how he could have demonstrated more completely his intention to disregard court orders, or to be deterred by past offences.”
Madden noted that Twyne entered his guilty plea relatively early, which is often reflective of remorse. He said by doing this and consenting to remand, the children at the dance school were spared the ordeal of a trial.
But: “He exposed these children to indecent, possibly drunk, and armed repeat sex offender. There is nothing mitigating and everything aggravating about that set of facts. The public, especially its more vulnerable members, have the right to be protected from not only violent, but potentially violent situations created by offenders breaching the law.”
The Crown asked for a sentence of almost three years, while the defence asked for 18 months. After accounting for 141 days’ credit — 1.5 times the time Twyne already spent in jail — he will serve another 783 days.
With files from Tara Bradbury
