WARNING TO ALL PARENTS

[emidlands]

I have just returned from the caravan holiday from hell in the Lake District.

My mother, husband, two children and I were booked in a very family-friendly campsite at Ullswater from Monday to Friday last week. We were having a fabulous time - until 2.30am of Wednesday morning. We were all in the caravan asleep, apart from my 14 year old daughter who was zipped up in a tent in the awning outside the caravan door. My mother was awoken by a noise and looked out of the caravan window - and to her horror saw a young man aged between 19 and 22 kneeling at the door of the tent, his body inside, with his pants and trousers pulled down.

She screamed and banged on the wall, which immediately scared him away and he ran out of the back of the awning. The screaming woke the rest of us up and we grabbed our 14 year old and pulled her in the caravan, and immeditely dialled 999. The police send sniffer dogs and foresic officers but the intruder had escaped. We are convinced that this person was about to rape my daughter, he had crawled past our cases and bags and hadn't touched them.

After the police left we came home straight away. We are now all terrified and my daughter is completely traumatised. We will never go caravanning again, let alone visit the Lakes. There was no security on the camp and we couldn't even get hold of the owners until 9am.

So please - pass this message onto as many campers as you can to warn them of the dangers of leaving your kids outside. I appreciate it is a rare thing what we experienced, but we never thought anything like this could happen to us.

 

[Tina3]

Hi Jane

My Daughter is 16 and last summer her and a friend slept in an inner tent ! I cannot imagine the horror you have gone through,luckily the pathetic loser was frigthened off!

I wont say dont let it put you of vanning as it so obviously will,you will do whats right for you at this moment in time.

Hopefully he will not beat you into never trying again at some point.

Love to you all,and your family

Tina xxx

 

[Viking1]

Hi jane,

what a shock for all of your family especially your daughter.

like tina says hopefully he won't stop you going caravaning in the future.

take care

sharon.

 

[CliveV]

Buy your Mum a super bottle of wine or whatever and give her a hug from every parent in the land.

And if she ever gets hold ot the little sh*te then I will swear she was with me.

 

[MikeAce]

i dont know what to say, apart from thank god your mother awoke, and thank god your daughter is safe.

lets hope the police catch him before he strikes again.

Your mum deserves a medal and a hug from us all.

 

[NorfolkMike]

Well done Mum!!!!

It is not posible to put yourself in your position and comment. We have caravaned with grandchildren for years and nothing remotly like this has occured. With the benifit of hindsight we were lucky in that there were always two in the awning/tent. Mayby that is the clue!!! do not let them be on there own, even if it means taking a friend.

Do not give up too quickly, but at the same time make sure your defenses are good.

It would be such a shame to let the bas!!!ds win.

Thank you for shairing this one. It realy stops you in your tracks.

ttfn

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

i feel so sorry for you all especially your daughter, and a big congrats to your mum.

i see lots of kids in tents outside the awnings. i was going to let our son but im having 2nd thoughts now. we always stay on cc sites that are really secure but still nothing is ever 100% secure.

i really do hope you continue to caravan and i hope the police catch that b*****d.

jo-anne

 

[Terry_5112949]

Thats digusting, would you care to elaborate as to which site it was as we often visit Ullswater

 

[MikeAce]

lol?

Mark G, what on earth is funny about this thread?

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

lol?

Mark G, what on earth is funny about this thread?

I was wondering the same - sighhhh!

 

[Moderator2_5083849]

I fail to see what was funny also, hence the deleted comment

 

[GrahamW]

Urban Dictionary definition of LOL

Now, it is overused to the point where nobody laughs out loud when they say it. In fact, they probably don't even give a s**t about what you just wrote. More accurately, the acronym "lol" should be redefined as "Lack of laughter."

I sincerley hope that this was in MarkG's mind when he posted his reply

 

[lolly_5087162]

Jane

My heart goes out to you and your family. It doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened, and I know it's still raw to you all, but hopefully you won't be put off caravanning again by these "scum"

Pity someone couldn't have got out of the van fast enough to beat the living s**t out of the pervert - maybe then the police and site owners would have been more on the ball to catch him.

God bless you all.

Lolly x

 

[DavidW1]

Jane,

How terrible for you and right now of course you don't want to even think about caravanning again but please don't let this put you off for ever.

The vast majority of vanners are decent law abiding family folk who are appalled by such an incident. Do not let this "creature" win by giving up.

There are positive measures you can take to prevent such events occuring which include only staying on warden controlled sites with security measures or getting yourself a dog - does'nt have to be a large one, most dogs will create a terrible racket if they sense an intruder.

Yes I know everybody isn't a dog lover but I do know that my German Shepherd would put the fear of death into anybody trying to get near one of my family; it gives you a very comforting feeling of security both at home and in the van.

Once again,I sincerely hope you can get over the trauma, maybe not dwelling too much on what might have happened and just being thankful nobody got hurt will help a little.

 

[cokey1970]

Jane

My heart goes out to you and your family. It doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened, and I know it's still raw to you all, but hopefully you won't be put off caravanning again by these "scum"

Pity someone couldn't have got out of the van fast enough to beat the living s**t out of the pervert - maybe then the police and site owners would have been more on the ball to catch him.

God bless you all.

Lolly x

The fact that a police dog was used to track the offender suggests to me that the police were on the ball. This combined with scenes of crimes officers being sent to the scene suggests to me that the police treated the incident with the seriousness it deserved.

 

[emidlands]

Thank you all for your replies, I am glad that the message is getting out there as all I want to do is warn other parents. I am sorry but I don't think I should elaborate on the site, only that it is in Ullswater. If you want to ask the police, contact them in Penrith, they are dealing with it now.

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

Jane :

First of all, I offer my sympathy to you and the family; a terrible shock which thankfully did not turn into a tregedy. I agree with you that, to name the site would somehow implicate them in this crime. One cannot really blame 'Ullswater' or the 'Lake District' either, because terrible things can happen anywhere.

Like others have said, I would hope that you could slowy return to caravnning; perhaps ensuring that your first few sites had good security.

Best wishes

John

 

[dazicki]

oh my god weve just returned from hols and my sister two teenage girls were sleeping in the innertent we all thought they would be safe but after reading this i think a change of sleeping arrangement is called for

thank god your mum woke up

 

[nicola_5120848]

Thank god that your mum woke up, please pass on our thoughts to your daughter.

Take care

Nicky

 

[Steve L]

Firstly we would like to offer our sypathy and support to you and your family Jane. Your mum deserves a medal for her presence of mind to alert everyone.

One thing we have done in the past to protect belongings in the awning, but it could apply to occupants too, is too clip a personal alarm to the zip and peg the other end to the ground. These alrarms are designed to protect people from bag snatchers by having the lead on the bag and the alarm on the person. On opening the zip from outside it would set off the alarm.

I have one for my laptop and one for my briefcase. They can be obtained through most good office supply companies.

I do hope you can at some point return to caravanning and Im sure there are plenty of us here who would support you.

All the best.

Steve L and family

 

[tonyd1]

If this offender was a local man and a repeat offender then there is a likelihood that there will have been other instances of similar behaviour on the site you were at or other sites in the district. Unless of course this was his first ever attempt for this type of offence;which is highly unlikely. There will be an officer in charge of this case and you should have been given his/her details. I would phone them and ask if there have been similar offences to yours recorded and what progress is being made with your complaint. Also there will be a local newspaper that reports on certain types of crime and in yours it was so serious that it deserves a mention all of its own. You will be able via the web to establish the details of the local paper. You could have a word with the crime reporter and ask if your case received any press coverage. There is no need for you to disclose to him/her you or any member of your family's details. If he is a repeat offender he will strike again and hopefully will be caught and quickly.

There is of course one other possibility and that is that he was also on the site in another van. I would hope that the police made extensive enquiries with other campers to eliminate that possibility.

I'm sorry to hear that it has happened to you and your family and I can understand your fear of going near a caravan ever again. Good luck and do get in touch with the investigating officer if only to put your mind at rest that enquiries are ongoing and that it is not just being treated as an isolated incident. Your efforts might prevent some other poor kid from becoming a victim.