Semi-naked man tried to entice my son, two, says holidaymaker (From Bournemouth Echo)

Semi-naked man tried to entice my son, two, says holidaymaker

7:00pm Thursday 13th September 2007

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AN AMERICAN tourist has blasted the National Trust for being slow to call police after a semi-naked man tried to entice away his two-year-old son.

New York businessman David Jones, 38, said the police were not alerted until well over an hour after the incident - a delay he blames in part on National Trust staff.

Once they were called, officers were on the scene within 10 minutes and searched the area by helicopter - but with no success.

The father-of-two was on a two-week holiday with his family when he visited Studland Beach on August 16, Mistakenly they wandered into the naturist area, unaware of its reputation for outdoor sex acts.

Mr Jones then spotted his little boy wandering away across the dunes. "I went to stop him," he said. "That's when I saw that the person calling him was a man with his arms outstretched to our son.

"He had no underpants on. When he saw me, he turned around and fled."

He added: "It took me a couple of minutes to realise what I had witnessed. A semi-naked man - who thought he and my son were alone - who tried to get a two-year-old boy to come to him. When he was discovered by the boy's father he ran. After those facts sunk in, I hit the panic button."

Without a mobile phone, a desperate Mr Jones walked to the National Trust Shell Bay car park kiosk, but claims he was sent away to another staff member at Knoll Beach, who in turn passed him on to the director of customer relations. She eventually made the call - an hour and 45 minutes after the incident.

Mr Jones said: "Studland is a ticking time bomb. If the problem isn't better addressed, a child will go missing.

"To me it seems the police are fully aware of the danger, but I'm not so sure about the National Trust."

He added: "At the very least, the National Trust needs to clearly mark the beach for what it is. Thus they can help an unsuspecting family from making our same mistake."

A National Trust spokesman said the trust took such incidents extremely seriously and encouraged visitors to report them immediately to police or National Trust beach wardens.

He added: "We will be contacting Mr Jones directly to apologise for the time delay he encountered when trying to report the incident.

"Unfortunately, he left the beach before contacting our staff and there was, therefore, a delay in responding."

He added: "We are very aware of the illegal behaviour which takes place on Studland Beach and are working hard to make Studland a safe place to visit."

Sergeant Jon Bleasdale of Swanage Police said he believe the incident was an anomaly and fast-acting National Trust staff had helped police make arrests on the beach in the past.

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