Sex offender fined £1.42 per indecent exposure
A sex offender who indecently exposed himself seven times has been handed a £10 fine – equivalent to just £1.42 per offence.
Leon Clarke, 49, from Sutton, south London, also received a one-year community order after admitting indecently exposing himself with intent to cause alarm on seven occasions at train stations last year.
His 'soft' sentence has sparked demands for police and courts to take a tougher approach, just days after The Telegraph revealed how thousands of sex offenders accused of indecent exposure were avoiding prosecution.
It comes despite a crackdown pledge by police after the rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
The proportion of indecent exposure offences resulting in a charge has halved since 2014-15 from one in five to just one in 10 (10.2 per cent) despite the number of reported crimes increasing by 160 per cent from 6,000 to 16,000 in the same period.
A government-commissioned report found Wayne Couzens, who while serving as a Metropolitan Police officer murdered Sarah, could have been stopped if police had carried out a 'more thorough and committed' investigation into reports of his alleged indecent exposures.
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