A PRIEST who left a “love note” on a woman’s car, only to expose himself to her when she returned to it, has defended his actions as extreme flirting.

Royston Thompson, said he was inspired by glamour models on late-night television show Babe Station when he exposed himself on the doorstep of his Darlington home.

The 25-year-old told Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court yesterday that he was a priest and a respected figure in the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.

He said before he was baptised he enjoyed looking at women on Babe Station and thought that his victim might enjoy looking at him.

Thompson said: “I have learnt my lesson but it was nothing more than harmless flirting, like the women on Babe Station do every night.”

He added: “This sin happened three days after I got baptised, everything good God has done Satan will undo.”

Earlier in the hearing Thompson was refused permission to take the oath using his Mormon bible which he said was the only true gospel of God. Ian Bradshaw, prosecuting, said the woman did not read the note until after Thompson exposed himself, and she had driven away.

Mr Bradshaw said: “The note was in itself suggestive and sexual, and it had a mobile phone number on it and it was signed Royston.”

Thompson told the arresting officer that he was a priest and that he would not have committed the offence because he could not have sexual relations before marriage.

He told the court: “To do so is the second worst sin in the house of God.”

Representing himself, Thompson denied indecent exposure, and that he was masturbating, on Wednesday, August 10, claiming that the woman had enjoyed watching him undress in his bedroom window.

Thompson, who said that he could baptise when called upon to do so and teaches children in their homes, added: “The only thing I am guilty of is looking at a woman like a sex object.”

He added: “Let our heavenly lord father strike me down if I am lying.”

Thompson was found guilty, upon trial, but sentencing was adjourned, until February 13, for the preparation of pre-sentence reports.