WARNING: Some details in this story are disturbing. Discretion is advised.
A Surrey, B.C., business owner, with a history of sex offences, is back in court on a new charge.
Thomas Charles Cooper is accused of exposing himself to a young female employee at a Guildford clothing store in July 2022.
The woman told the court on Monday that Cooper was sitting on a couch across from the store and was wearing loose shorts, a baseball cap and a surgical mask.
She said he looked at her, then moved the pant leg to expose his genitals and covered himself when others walked by.
“He was looking right at me,” the victim told the court. “When a lot of people were walking by, he would cover it with his tote bag. And when they left, he would expose it again.”
The woman broke down in tears when a still frame from the surveillance video was shown in the court.
Back in 2014, Cooper was sentenced to 45 weekends in jail for one count of sexual interference.
At the time, he was also charged with sexual assault and exposing his genitals to someone under 16 but those charges were stayed.
However, the trauma did not go away.
“I was in a friend’s home when the accused had walked in in his pajama pants and exposed his genitals to me,” one of the women involved in the 2014 alleged incident told Global News.
“I remember his genitals being hard and he stayed in the room for quite a bit.”
There were two women outside the court on Monday who said they were there to support the alleged victim in the latest case.
However, they cannot be identified as they were minors when the alleged incident took place in 2014.
“We were undermined,” the second woman said.
“We were called dramatic and liars.”
When Cooper took the stand on Monday, he denied he was exposing himself.
“I didn’t know I was showing … my groin area,” he said.
Cooper also said it was the first time he had worn the shorts and was starting a new workout regime.
“They’re Umbro shorts,” he added. “It’s a big company. I didn’t think there’d be any type of malfunction.”
The judge will now decide if Cooper purposefully exposed himself or not.
The testimony will continue on Tuesday.