Police hunt serial flasher (From Thisisdorset)

Police hunt serial flasher

8:32am Thursday 16th August 2012 in Latest

POLICE are hunting a man who has been exposing himself to lone female joggers in a popular area of Poole.

Three incidents happened within nine days of each other in the Branksome Chine Walk area of the town and have sparked increased police patrols.

The first incident took place at around 5.40pm on Monday August 6 when a man flashed at a woman while she was out running along Branksome Chine Walk near Tower Road West. The victim, a 39-year-old from Poole, described the offender as wearing a white T-shirt and navy running shorts. He had greying hair.

The second offence happened between 4.35pm and 5pm on Sunday August 12. The victim said a man had indecently exposed himself on Branksome Chine Walk near the beach and then disappeared from sight.

And on Wednesday Dorset Police received a call at around 11am reporting that a man had exposed himself to a female jogger at the Chester Road end of Branksome Chine.

The offender has been described as aged between 45 and 50 with short greying hair and of medium build.

Police attended both incidents and carried out a search of the area but no arrests have been made.

A Bournemouth woman, who fell victim to the flasher whilst going for a seafront run, said: “The way he was behaving, I could see he was going to do something. I just told him to put it away and ran on but I was then con¬cerned in case he came after me, or if he might target anybody else.

“It left me a bit shocked. It makes you feel you're unsafe to run anywhere and that's not right. I don't see why I, or anyone else, should feel threatened by someone like him. It's not a very nice feeling.”

Inspector Steve Horton, of Poole Police, said: “We can confirm that these incidents are linked and are currently being investigated by Dorset Police.

“ From the descriptions and information we have been given by the victims, we also believe these offences are being committed by the same person.

“We would urge anyone who may have seen either of these incidents take place, or may have information about the offender to con¬tact Dorset police in confidence on the non-emergency number 101, quoting message numbers 06:413, 13:368 and 15:178.”

He added: “We would like to stress that this type of incident is extremely unusual for this area, and Dorset police will be increasing patrols in the area over the coming weeks.”