A SERIAL flasher who travelled from his Horwich home by bike and train was chased by a lynch mob in Bradford after exposing himself to a seven-year-old girl, a court heard.

Paul Smith, who was jailed for four years yesterday, suffered multiple fractures when he was attacked by angry neighbours in the Barkerend area of Bradford in July last year.

The 56-year-old, of Gorton Fold, Horwich, is already banned from travelling on trains with his bike after cycling around various locations over the decades exposing himself, with 108 previous convictions for sexual offences, Bradford Crown Court was told.

The girl was said to be shocked and upset, and ran to tell her family when Smith exposed himself from only about a metre away as she played in her garden.

He was then chased by outraged neighbours and pushed off his bike, leaving him with fractured ribs and a broken collar bone, pelvis and wrist.

He spent 10 days in hospital and his bicycle was never recovered, his barrister, Jeremy Hill-Baker, told the court.

His first conviction for flashing was in 1972 and he had only recently been released from jail after serving six years for repeated similar crimes.

Mr Hill-Baker said Smith was cycling around Bradford, not intending to expose himself, but he took a short cut and “lost control of the situation”.

He told the police he “wanted to be noticed”.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said: “You came to the wrong area because you so inflamed the members of the community here that they hunted you down.

“You are a dangerous man and cause, for your depraved satisfaction, great harm to children.”

He warned Smith he would be shown no mercy if he appeared before a court in Bradford again.


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The girl’s father, who cannot be named to protect the girl’s identity, made a citizen’s arrest when Smith targeted his daughter.

He said that he and neighbours gave chase and said he had to stop “a lynch mob” setting about Smith while waiting for police to arrive.