Sascha?Wil­son

Two male cross-dressers cre­at­ed quite a com­mo­tion in the San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trates Court, yes­ter­day, when they ap­peared dressed like women on charges of loi­ter­ing.

Nicholas Paul, who said he pre­ferred to be called Nik­ki when he was dressed in fe­male at­tire, and Keron Lewis, were both the ob­jects of stares and laugh­ter when they were es­cort­ed in hand­cuffs to the court.

Po­lice of­fi­cers were al­so seen tak­ing pho­tos of the men with their cell­phones. Paul, 32, of San Fer­nan­do, and Lewis, 25, a hair­dress­er of Aripero and La Brea, were kept sep­a­rate from the oth­er pris­on­ers as a safe­ty pre­cau­tion.

Paul was dressed in a red top, short black dress and black wig, while Lewis was wear­ing a skin-tight mi­ni black dress and a long bur­gundy and black wig. They both ap­peared be­fore Mag­is­trate Na­tal­ie Diop.

They were ar­rest­ed at San Fer­nan­do Street, San Fer­nan­do, on Thurs­day night at the same time, but they were charged sep­a­rate­ly.

The mag­is­trate asked both Paul and Lewis how they wished to be ad­dressed, whether as "her­self" or "him­self." Paul said he pre­ferred to be ad­dressed as Nik­ki when he was dressed "like this," but Lewis said: "I am a man." Both plead­ed guilty to the charge.

Pros­e­cu­tor Sgt Cha­nar­dath Jhilmit said Paul and Lewis, along with an­oth­er per­son, were seen by WPC Keisha Sealy, who was on mo­bile pa­trol du­ty, stand­ing in a poor­ly lit area.

When WPC Keisha Sealy first ap­proached them around 9 pm and in­quired what they were do­ing there, Paul and Lewis said: "Of­fi­cer, we wait­ing for a taxi."

When the of­fi­cer re­turned around 10 pm they were still there.

Paul said: "I wait­ing for my friends," while Lewis said: "I wait­ing for my boyfriend."

When the of­fi­cer re­turned a third time around 10.47 pm, the ac­cused were still there. Paul's ex­cuse was: "I wait­ing for my house keys," while Lewis said: "I wait­ing for dri­ver."

Paul ad­mit­ted the facts, but Lewis dis­put­ed them. How­ev­er, Lewis said he want­ed to main­tain his guilty plea be­cause he did not want to "car­ry it on."

The mag­is­trate then ex­plained that she had no choice but to en­ter a not guilty plea on his be­half. Lewis said he lived at In­dus­try Lane, La Brea, but stayed with his boyfriend at Aripero. Lewis said it was the first time he was ar­rest­ed. The mag­is­trate placed him on $500 own bail to re­turn to court on May 29. Paul, who was ar­rest­ed on a pre­vi­ous oc­ca­sion on a sim­i­lar charge, said he worked as a house­keep­er, but had been un­em­ployed for about two months.

He was fined $100. Paul has five days to pay the mon­ey or serve ten days in jail.