A woman who encountered a naked man on a river towpath and helped detain him says a police officer’s apparent failure to log the incident is an “absolute disgrace”.
Mia Silver was walking her dogs with husband Andrew alongside the River Stort near Tednambury Lock in Sawbridgeworth at around 9pm on Sunday June 2 when the incident happened.
The couple were watching an owl diving down for mice when they spotted a man in nearby woodland. He ducked down.
“As we approached the woods Andrew said ‘I saw a bloke in there’,” said Mia. “As I was looking he appeared from behind a tree with his back to me – he was completely naked.”
The man then emerged from the woods, wearing trousers and a jumper. Mia asked him why he had been in the woods with no clothes on.
The man, who she said was in his 50s and had thinning grey hair, did not answer and walked off. As the couple pursued him and Andrew took photos of him, he stopped. They phoned police and an Essex Police officer came from Braintree within 15 minutes.
“[The man] crouched down into a ball with his face covered until police came,” said Mia. “He got himself into a right pickle – he was being sick and there were real tears,” she added.
“He said ‘I wasn’t touching myself, I wasn’t hurting anyone – I don’t want to go to prison’.”
Mia said that despite the incident she was kind to the man and told him to sit on a bench, but he refused.
When the police officer arrived he asked the couple if they had seen the man’s penis, to which they replied they had not. The officer then said that because of that, no offence had been committed. The officer took the man’s details and the couple left.
“The police officer said he was known for various things,” said Mia. The officer then said they could go. They are not aware of what happened to the man.
Although Mia said that initially the incident did not affect her, she has had sleepless nights and is unsure whether to walk her dog on the path alone.
“I didn’t feel intimidated, but had I been on my own I would have been terrified. I feel when he came to the edge of the woods he was looking for a lone woman.” She said as they were leaving the path they saw a woman and warned her about the man.
“If we hadn’t seen him when we walked down to the wood he would have flashed her,” she said.
Mia added: “I believe he probably has mental health issues, but if he is mentally ill he needs to be dealt with – or if he is on the sex offender register.”
She said she decided to put the incident on the Sawbridgeworth Facebook group to warn women a day after the incident when the police failed to contact her.
“People need to be made aware that he’s around,” she said. “I kind of get it, but there’s got to be some offence for walking around naked,” said Mia.
The Indie contacted Essex police but a spokesperson said they had reviewed calls and had no record of the incident.
Mia insisted she had given police her details adding: “If they haven’t logged it that is an absolute disgrace.”
In May 2021 Essex police joined forces with their counterparts in Herts to track down a masked flasher who was believed to have been responsible for 30 offences in the area. There have been no incidents from the man for some time, but there has been no information from police that he has been apprehended.