Trigger warning - avoiding sexual attack questions - how you feel safe walking alone when you hear a local man is hiding naked in woodlands?

[IMakeDealsWithTheDevil]

I have a dog and have to go out daily. We have a situation locally where a man has been seen naked in woodlands in several local areas recently. There was another similar news item a few months back.

On Facebook a lot of men are making jokes about it but I am actually very worried. Several murders have taken place within a 40mile radius of where we live that have been female lone dog walkers, two of the murderers we know had been being sexually deviant up to the murders, showing genitalia etc.

I find the story has landed very differently with the women on the village group with many of us worried but the men thinking it's "just a nudist" or making jokes.

It's really affecting how relaxed I am on my walks and where I am walking. I've been thinking today how I would get attention if I was jumped or what I should carry with me or how I should act to put them off. Is it still the best advice to talk to them about their mum if they try to rape you? Biting? Poking eyes? What do you carry with you?

I really hope I am not coming across as crazy but I knew one of the women who was murdered personally and I am finding this very triggering. I think there should be some police led safety advice in the area.

*Title should be a man in local woodlands - we don't know if he is local

I’d avoid woodlands for now and stick to well-populated parks. And check the police are doing something about it.

Is he actually hiding or is he "just" out for a walk, for example.

Rightly or wrongly, being naked in public isn't illegal in this country so unless there is evidence of criminality then you may not get much help there.

You could always carry a walking stick and some deep heat spray?

Thanks. I've been avoiding the woods but obviously that changes a lot of routines and we have to then drive a way to go on similar length walks and often parking is a nightmare. It's fine as I would rather do that than be attacked but from what I can tell there isn't a police presence near or in the woods.

The 'updates' are just that "Police are aware". Am I weird to want more than that?

I thought it is illegal? You can be in your own land or home but not in public spaces?

I don't think you're weird OP but if you want the police to do more I think you're going to need to give them more than "there's a man naked in the woods" - because at the moment, that's not a crime.

If he's following people, pestering them, otherwise causing distress then that's a whole different thing, but as things stand just being naked in a public place isn't a crime.

Could you buddy up with someone and walk together?

A small aerosol can of body spray, deep heat or similar might be something you happen to carry in your coat pocket should the need arise while out for a walk.

I thought it'd be classed as indecent exposure? Maybe not as I know there are naturists that go on walks.

Isn't it a bit late by that point though?
My friend was in a public place when she was murdered and he had been reported just hours before. It feels like they are waiting for it to escalate.

Indecent exposure requires the intentional exposure of your genitals with the purpose of someone to be alarmed or distressed by seeing them.

This is why nudists going for a ramble aren't included in the above. You'd have to prove they set out with the intention to cause alarm or distress.

We had similar in our area a few years ago. It was posted on the local facebook group. After seeing a number of jokey comments ( from men and women) I absolutely let rip with a rant along the lines of do you want your wife, mother, daughter to see this etc. It shut them up for a bit.
local pervert was eventually caught by the police.

But they have to wait for it to escalate to a criminal level before they can take any action beyond a chat. They can't start treating someone like a criminal if they're not suspected of any crime.

I really thought being naked in public woodlands would be seen as intimidating at the least. When they do it on a street where they are unlikely to rape they are arrested, but in an area where they can kill you with no one knowing it's different?

I wouldn't assume a man naked in the woodlands presented any more of a sexual threat to me than any other man tbh. I think rape is often about control and dominance, and I'd say a naked person would be vulnerable. Personally I'd suspect a vulnerable person with mental health issues rather than someone looking to commit rape.

I'd avoid going to woodlands alone if I really felt at risk.

I wouldn't expect the police to be treating this person as a sexual predator, because there's no evidence that he is.

Don't walk alone in the woods. Team up with two or three other dog walkers and walk together - at least one of them a trustworthy male, ideally. If you have to, make sure you have a tracker on your phone and call someone for a long cxatch up so you are in conversation for most of the walk.

It fucks me off SO much that male violence rules our lives. I used to walk happily alone in the woods and hills where we live. Then a neighbour's son hammered a complete stranger almost to death. She was a young mum out jogging. He was a drugged up teen. Bet he wouldn't have been so drugged up that he'd attack a six foot six boxer out for a jog, though. He was sent to a secure unit, and it happened years ago but I still can't walk down the path where she was left for dead if I'm alone and I have to force myself to go for a walk alone these days whereas I used to love it.

Actually there is evidence that men who expose themselves go on to sexually attack. It's a gateway crime.

Indeed, but I would have thought it absolutely is their responsibility to identify the man and go and have that chat, if only to be able to reassure the public he’s (say) just a long-standing elderly naturist and not lying in wait?

My youngest only really naps in the buggy (yay) so I walk a lot during the day. This is an areas I grew up in but over the past couple of years the crime rate has risen and we have the kids in balaclavas etc.
I've now started to get anxious on certain areas which is a shame. But I saw a post on FB where someone advised them to carry some deep heat. Pepper spray and the like is illegal, deep heat isn't.
I'm not quite sure how much it would help but a small can gives the security of buying more time to get away.

What a sad world we live in!

Who's to say they haven't done that though? OP says the police are aware.

You are right OP and don’t let anyone gaslight you otherwise. We know that these behaviours escalate and I would be walking with a baseball bat (no officer I use it to bat balls for my dogs)

Men have no effing clue how women navigate the world.

But flashing absolutely is about control and dominance, because it’s about provoking someone to react and making them afraid.
Nudity is vulnerable in certain contexts, aggressive in others.

I imagine they possibly have found the man and had a chat. But if he's posing no risk to the public, then the public have no right to his personal information and circumstances. So 'Police are Aware' is an appropriate response. They're aware, and they dont consider any further action necessary. So that's the end of the matter.

Is this the man in Buckshaw Village? If so, he's done this before and he doesn't just run around naked, he commits obscene acts. It was on the Facebook page for the village yesterday and it has been reported to the police but I don't know the current situation. It's very frightening and I'm not walking anywhere quiet on my own at the moment as I really think he is escalating in his behavior. If it isn't the man in BV then just how many of these sickos are there in the country?

But OP hasn't said he's flashing (which would be different). He's just wandering around naked in the woods.

But surely if they have done that they COULD say ‘we’ve found the man and he poses no risk,’ even though as you rightly point out they can’t share further details?
It doesn’t sound like they have done that.