I can explain, says strip club dad

MANAWATU STANDARD

ABSENT FATHER: Wayne Schwamm, pictured in 1998, says: "I look forward to telling the real reason I was there."

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The man accused of leaving his baby in a car while he visited a Wellington strip club says there is more to the story and is looking forward to giving his version.

The man – whom The Dominion Post can reveal as Wayne Schwamm – will appear in Wellington District Court on Monday, charged with leaving a child under the age of 14 without reasonable supervision.

Schwamm was reluctant to comment to The Dominion Post yesterday, after his lawyer instructed him not to talk to the media.

But he said he was unhappy with the information that had already come to light and was keen to reveal what happened. "There are other circumstances that are yet to play themselves out ... But when they have all been dealt with, I look forward to telling the real reason I was there [at the strip club]."

His young son was placed in Child, Youth and Family care after a passer-by noticed him alone in a car outside the National Bank in Courtenay Place about 3am on Tuesday.

Police had to break the window of the locked car to rescue the boy. He is believed to have been left alone for 40 minutes. Police said Schwamm was later found inside the nearby Mermaid strip club, where he was arrested on an outstanding warrant for unrelated "minor" charges.

He is the former owner of Ideal Cakes bakery in Palmerston North and was embroiled in a rent dispute with property owner Keith Norling last year.

Ideal Cakes also made headlines while under Schwamm's ownership last year after it received an E grading – the lowest possible rating – in a Palmerston North City Council food standards survey.

Staff at Ideal Cakes said yesterday that Schwamm no longer had any ties to the business. "We don't know where he's gone."

Schwamm has also been a heavily involved member of the Manawatu horse racing community, racing horses under the banner of Real Ideal Bloodstock Ltd.

He had a racing share in Distinctly Secret when the Mark Walker-trained galloper won the $750,000 Kelt Capital Stakes in 2003. Real Ideal Bloodstock was struck off the companies register in February.