A SERIAL flasher who stripped off at Penn Inn, Newton Abbot, on one of the coldest days of the year told the police who arrested him: 'Let me in the car, I'm freezing.'

Malcolm King was wearing only a pink wig, stick-on body jewellery, and waving a glow stick as he stood in the central reservation of a dual carriageway next to the busy roundabout.

He was jumping up and down and waggling his private parts at a stream of cars, some containing children.

He chose to expose himself on the night of January 30 this year, at a time when a yellow warning had just been issued for sub zero temperatures and frosty roads.

King, aged 57, had only been released hours earlier from a previous five months sentence for flashing in a beach hut in Torbay.

He has previously been jailed for exposing himself in the centre of Plymouth while wearing only pink gloves and in Exeter wearing only a pink Alice band and suspender belt.

Homeless King, previously of Paradise Place, Plymouth, admitted exposure and was jailed for 12 months by Recorder Mr Malcolm Galloway at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: 'Members of the public, when the read of these offences, may find some of them amusing but there was a real potential you were doing this in front of children and others who might be shocked.

'You may, perhaps in drink, find this something you wish to do, but others do not want to see it and the court has to consider that you have completely ignored earlier sentences.

'This happened on the day you were released from prison on one of the busiest roundabouts in the country which was packed with cars. Dozens of members of the public would have seen you.'

He added: 'I am told you were homeless and wanted to get arrested but I view that with a certain amount of suspicion because you could have walked naked into a police station but instead chose this roundabout.

'All the courts can do with this sort of behaviour is to pass longer and longer sentences.'

Gordon Richings said a female police officer was driving past the roundabout shortly before 7pm when she saw a man standing in a triangular section of the central reservation on the Exeter side of the main A380.

He said: 'The officer saw King completely naked save for a pink wig. He was jumping up and down waggling his penis. There were a number of pedestrians and motorists in the area and although it was dark, it was well lit.

'He was wearing stick on jewels on his body. The officer stopped and he said to her "'let me in the car, I'm freezing".'

Paul Dentith, mitigating, said King had been released from his last sentence earlier that day and was penniless and homeless.

He said: 'He had no form of support and says he had been reduced to drinking water from a river in Newton Abbot. He felt the only way of getting help was to be arrested. He was in a dreadful state.'

Mr Dentith said King has been in custody since his arrest, which equates to a 12 month sentence, and will receive more support from the probation service when he is released again.