A Tipperary born, homeless, former lawyer who crept into a woman’s bedroom while wearing fishnet stockings, a G string, and while high on various drugs, mistook her for a giant panda bear.
53-year-old Desmond Moran was today cleared of trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence after he explained to a UK court that he had taken so many drugs he didn’t know what he was doing.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons said she was asleep in her bed with her two kids when she woke up to find Moran, wearing bizarre lingerie and staring at her from the door of her bedroom.
She told the court that she watched as he slowly crossed the room to stare out of the window.
"I woke up and I saw him there and he was just looking at us, I felt like he was looking at me even though the two kids were there.
"I said 'Who are you, what are you doing? What are you doing in my apartment?'
"That's when I started getting quite anxious and I started screaming at him, and the children woke up.
"When I first saw him I couldn't see much, I thought he had an apron on, he wasn't wearing trousers or a jacket, it was like a costume, and when he went to the window and turned around I could see his bottom - I think he had a G-string on."
Amid sniggering from jurors at Southwark Crown Court the woman claimed that Moran didn’t answer her when she shouted at him during the incident which took place on the 14th of July this year.
Moran, who was later discovered in the basement of the apartment block still wearing his fishnet stockings and G-string, denied ever seeing the woman.
Stock image of fish net stockings
He said: "I honestly didn't see a woman on the bed, I didn't see any children in the bed, I honestly thought it was a big panda bear in the bed, that's what it looked like to me.
"I had taken some drugs but I am pretty certain that's what I saw, I didn't see any woman, I didn't see any kids... were they under the panda?"
Moran, who was high on crack cocaine and crystal meth continued: "I went to the bay window and the window was open, and I thought "why is the window open?"
"I went over and I looked down into the street.
"Then I thought 'I'm just going to leave.' I was nearly out of the room, I hadn't seen the woman, then it all happened so quickly - she was screaming 'who are you, get out of my house'."
"Then the kids started screaming, but it didn't sound like kids screaming - it didn't sound real, it honestly sounded like a tape recording of kids screaming, I know it sounds strange."
Moran, who had been sleeping rough for a number of years, couldn’t explain why he was wearing a G-string and fishnet stockings.
He told the court: "I could make surmises but I don't know.
"I wasn't in full control of my reasoning or faculties, that's why I kept moving, I went up three or four landings, I kept going up stairs.
"I stopped on the landing then I came to the property that I entered, I had no idea why I was in there or what I was doing, I turned the handle and it wasn't locked.
"I was wearing fishnet stocking, underwear and I was also wearing a tee-shirt.
"I had no shoes on, I had no socks on.
"I think I was conscious I wasn't wearing trousers but not in the way I would be conscious if I was standing here now without them.
"I think it was a reaction to the cocktail of drugs, I'm not trying to run away or hide from anything, I hold my hands up."
Moran was cleared of trespassing with intent to commit a sexual offence after just 30 minutes' deliberation.