A man with an apple-sized growth on his groin has been cleared of exposing himself to two shocked women in the centre of Exeter.
Steven Hinde claimed he was the victim of mistaken identity and could not have been the offender because the victims would have noticed his distinctive mark.
The 53-year-old was found not guilty at a retrial at Exeter Crown Court despite having 13 previous convictions for similar offences in the past.
He produced evidence from a doctor to say he had the growth, which is the size of half an apple and insisted it would have been obvious to anyone who saw him.
He denied being in two alleyways near his home in the heart of Exeter on the days when the young women saw him.
They both picked him out on police video identity parades but he said they must have recognised him from passing in the street because they all live in the St David's Hill area of the city.
Both women said the flasher held his private parts with one hand while smoking a cigarette with the other in two identical incidents three days apart.
Hinde, of Exe Street, Exeter, denied exposure at a retrial and was found not guilty. A second case against him was dropped because the complainant failed to appear at court.
A jury at his original trial in July last year was unable to reach a verdict but the new jury found him not guilty after hearing from the alleged victim of one of the incidents and viewing CCTV of Hinde.
The CCTV did not show the alleged act but did show a man in the area. The two alleged offences happened in Richmond Road and Church Path in July 2011.
Hinde said he had not been in either location at the time of the offences and the man on the CCTV must have been someone else who looked like him.
He accepted he had previous convictions for indecent exposure but said he had learned his lesson and stopped behaving in this was after receiving treatment a decade ago.
