"This was a clumsy attempt by a caring and gentle person to find a first girlfriend," Mr Derek Reed told Teignbridge Magistrates. "It is plainly a bizarre incident, and my client is of a strictly limited intelligence, but he never meant to cause harm or to frighten the woman involved."

Earlier, the court had heard the chain of circumstances that led Nicholas Green, 35, from Newton Abbot, to plead guilty to a charge of indecent assault. "My client, who has never had a girlfriend, has a very unusual fetish for plastic macs and Clingfilm. When he first saw the woman in question, she was walking with crutches after an accident, and he offered to come to her home and make her a stool. She accepted his offer but, instead of bringing tools to her home, he brought a large post office sack full of plastic raincoats, tipped them onto the floor, asked her to pick her favourite colour, and then began dressing her in macs. When he got to the third coat, he produced the roll of Clingfilm and began to wrap her in it, thereby trapping her arms. The woman complained that this was not the proper way to construct a stool, and that she was getting hot, but he continued, putting a total of eleven plastic raincoats and three rolls of Clingfilm on her while repeating: 'I am Captain Polymer, your friend, and I love you.'"

Magistrates sentenced Green to two years probation, on condition that he also received psychiatric help.