Michael Willshire
Michael Willshire, a violent male transvestite, was convicted of indecent exposure at Bournemouth Crown Court in January 2008, and sentenced to a three-year community order. He was also convicted of theft and voyeurism at an earlier hearing.
Willshire, a 48-year-old company director, indecently exposed himself to two teenage girls aged 16 and 17 while masturbating in an alley. He was dressed in stereotypically female clothing, including white stockings, suspenders, jazz shoes, a pink handbag, blonde wig and camisole, but no underwear.
When arrested, he told police: “I’m glad I got caught really because I need help. For some reason I like dressing up as a woman – I don’t know why. I sort of need to do it when I’m feeling a bit down.”
A search of Willshire’s home in Swanage, revealed an “enormous” number of items including wigs and fake breasts and a bundle of women’s underwear which were later discovered to have been stolen. Video recordings found in a safe were of a naked woman he had secretly filmed using his bathroom and later used for masturbatory purposes. The court heard the victim of voyeurism was a friend with whom Willshire wanted to have a relationship and that he stole underwear she had worn and “cuddled” them in bed at night.
Judge Roger Jarvis ordered three more counts of exposure to lie on file, and told Willshire he will have to attend the Thames Valley Sex Offender Group Work Programme until he has developed strategies to prevent further offending. He also placed Willshire on the sex offenders register for five years and ordered him to pay £1,000 towards prosecution costs.
The judge continued: “What happened was by any reckoning a bizarre episode. “It must have caused a great deal of anguish, distress and probably fright to the two young women who were involved in the incident of exposure.”
Speaking about the video tapes, he added: “The court has considered the effect the voyeurism act has had on that incident’s victim as well as how deeply shocking the discovery of this was. The court would be quite justified in punishing you by taking away your liberty today.”
Despite this assertion and the pattern of offending involving multiple female victims, the judge issued Willshire with a community order.
Other trans-identified males convicted of sexual offences involving women’s/children’s underwear are collated here.
Photo via Bournemouth Echo
Media reports
Metro https://metro.co.uk/2008/02/08/company-director-dressed-as-women-and-masturbated-in-alleyways-631651 archive
Bournemouth Echo https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/1941608.dad-47-dressed-in-stockings-to-flash-at-teenager/ archive
Bournemouth Echo https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/2031831.flasher-in-womens-clothes-spared-jail/ archive