A MAN with learning disabilities says he was called names in public after being wrongly suspected of being a flasher.

Police issued a picture of Jonathan Toms last August after receiving reports that a man had exposed himself to a woman and her four-year-old son on the seafront at Canford Cliffs.

They have since decided no offence was committed.

Mr Toms said the episode “caused me distress”.

Speaking through the learning disabilities charity Bournemouth People First, he said he had been “called names by the public” in the wake of the episode.

Police had said in their original appeal for information that the alleged indecent exposure had happened in the Canford Cliffs area on Sunday, August 25. They said a 34-year-old woman had been walking with her son when the incident happened near public toilets on Pinecliff Road, near Branksome Chine beach.

A Dorset Police spokeswoman said no action was being taken against anyone and the force no longer believed an offence was committed.

Paul Thomas, learning disability adviser with Bournemouth People First – a ‘speaking up’ group for adults with learning disabilities – said: “We have a successful scheme which supports victims of crime through the criminal justice system.

“In Jonathan’s case it was more a question of redressing an injustice and supporting him to get his voice heard.”