A convicted serial flasher has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years’ jail for exposing himself to more than 20 school girls in Newcastle.<\/p>\n
Peter James Bowman, 57, pleaded guilty in March to 22 offences, including intentionally carrying out a sexual act towards a child aged 10 to 16, and carrying out a sexual act without consent.<\/p>\n
The 22 school girls were aged between 11 and 17.<\/p>\n
Bowman’s offending happened at Hamilton, Hamilton South, Cooks Hill and Merewether between November 2021 and October 2023.<\/p>\n
Newcastle District Court heard he exposed his genitals on seven separate occasions between 2021 and 2023, to girls as young as 11.<\/p>\n
The Wallsend man admitted to not wearing underwear, flashing while sitting on park benches and walking in suburban streets as girls walked home from school.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Peter James Bowman exposed himself in several locations including Gregson Park, Hamilton. (ABC News: Ross McLoughlin)<\/p>\n
Tying shoelaces a ruse<\/p>\n
Judge Tim Gartelmann said Bowman pretended to tie his shoelaces before each exposure.<\/p>\n
Judge Gartelmann said the first offences happened in November 2021, involving the two youngest victims.<\/p>\n
“They were 11 and 12 years old, both were in year 6 and they were wearing a school uniform,” he said.<\/p>\n
“He pretended to tie his shoelaces, he sat with his legs spread and penis exposed outside his shorts, facing toward him.<\/p>\n
“One girl took a photo of him, then he got up and walked away.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Peter Bowman outside Newcastle courthouse in March 2025. (ABC Newcastle: Keely Johnson)<\/p>\n
The court heard that Bowman exposed himself to two 14-year-old school girls in May 2022, smiling at them while exposing his penis.<\/p>\n
“They were scared, [one girl] thought he would chase them and try and kidnap them,” Judge Gartelmann said.<\/p>\n
The sentencing judge said Bowman approached four girls on a beach visit in January 2023, one of whom he had flashed two years earlier.<\/p>\n
A month later, Bowman approached a group of four girls while they walked home from school.<\/p>\n
Fleeing to a tree<\/p>\n
Judge Gartelmann said Bowman exposed himself in September 2023 to two 15-year-old girls in a park, who climbed a tree to escape him.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The court heard that in the following weeks, Bowman followed a group of girls from the beach to a nearby home.<\/p>\n
“They were on a trampoline and [one girl] asked why there was a guy circling the house,” the judge said.<\/p>\n
The court heard that one girl looked over the fence and saw Bowman’s penis exposed.<\/p>\n
Exhibitionistic disorder<\/p>\n
Bowman was arrested as police patrolled beachside suburbs in October 2023.<\/p>\n
The court heard that Bowman had PTSD from childhood trauma and also had exhibitionistic disorder.<\/p>\n
The disorder is characterised by an intense urge to expose genitals, and Judge Gartelmann said Bowman got “excited” while offending.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bowman was sentenced in Newcastle District Court. (ABC News: Michael Parfitt)<\/p>\n
“A psychiatrist suggested the disorder was causally related to the offender and that PTSD might have played a minor role,” the judge said.<\/p>\n
Judge Gartelmann said Bowman initially denied offending and “maintained his shoelaces came undone every five minutes”.<\/p>\n
He later pleaded guilty, earning him a 10 per cent discount on his sentence.<\/p>\n
Due to time served, Bowman will be eligible for parole in July 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A convicted serial flasher has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years’ jail for exposing himself to more than 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,48,55816,53297,55817,55819,44,55818,1158],"class_list":["post-71096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-crime","tag-exposing","tag-exposure","tag-flashing","tag-newcastle-flasher","tag-news","tag-peter-james-bowman","tag-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}