I phoned the fellow, Keith Weatherley, age 46, out-of-work boilermaker of North Arm Cove, yesterday morning and our interview is the subject of my column in The Herald today. I suspected that Mr Weatherley would have a story to tell, and he did even if much of it was mired in indignant embarrassment. In a second call he slammed the phone down with the outburst that I was a pathetic little man. Apart from that, his principal point is that he was doing nothing in public, that it was the police who made it public when they dragged him out of the car. When police had started pursuing his car at Nobbys Beach he'd been masturbating in the privacy of his car unseen by the public and, as the police admit, unseen by them. Police explained to the court that they could see that Mr Weatherley was doing something with his hands in his lap and thought that he might have had a weapon! My column today gives an indication of the size of that weapon!

And therefore, to lead his argument, it cannot be offensive.

Keith Weatherley says the police were "bloody rude" in dragging him out of the car, although muddying the water is the police statement that Mr Weatherley tried to continue "pleasuring himself in between bouts of wrestling".

Hmmm. Might he not have a point? If we can't see the act is it, indeed, any of our business? How can it be offensive if we can't see it?