A DAD says he and his five-year-old son were left in shock after allegedly catching a man exposing and touching himself at a nature reserve.

During a day out with his family, dad-of-three Andy – who did not wish to give his full name – came across the man at Trench Wood Nature Reserve before calling the police.

The 33-year-old and his young son had gone off the main footpath, away from his wife and other children, aged 12 and two, before happening upon the man.

He said: “I was in shock at what this bloke was doing. Getting himself off.”

Andy, from near Worcester, said he and his family regularly visit the nature reserve near Sale Green to go walking, with the alleged incident having taken place on July 21.

He said they’d been there around an hour when at about 4.30pm it happened, and, having called the police, a man was quickly detained and arrested.

“We were walking back [to the entrance] – me and my lad had gone one way and the others had gone the other way on the path, we’d gone off the path,” he explained.

“He [the man] wasn’t expecting to see us – he had his back to us.

“We approached, and as he was spinning around, I was right next to him.

“I sent my lad running down the path and I shouted to my wife.”

Andy said he called the police immediately and waited around until they arrived.

He said his wife was “distressed” by the incident, but it would not stop the family from visiting the reserve in the future.

On subsequent visits, he said every time they approach the same area, his son says “that’s where that man was”.

Asked if he was worried that it may have had a negative psychological impact on his son, Andy said: “Hopefully not. We will see.”

He said he and his wife used to allow his children to play hide and seek amongst the trees at the reserve “but that won’t happen again because of him”.

The dad added that while he now worries about letting his wife take the children there alone, “we’re not going to stop going, we can’t let it bother us”.

A spokesman for the reserve said they are “very disappointed” to hear of the alleged incident and “our sympathies go to the family concerned”.

  • Michael Smith appeared in Kidderminster Magistrates Court on July 23 but denied a charge of outraging public decency. The 27-year-old, of Ankerdine Hill, Knightwick, is due for trial at Worcester Magistrates Court on September 13.