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PARENTS RESPOND

 
LISMORE, ARE YOUR CHILDREN SAFE?

Many may be aware about the seemingly growing problem involving unusual behaviour around children. Children are being approached, photographed, spoken to, touched and, in the most serious of circumstances, sexually assaulted and/or abducted. We are hearing about this problem more and more frequently.
 
Lismore Public School 01A few days ago, Wednesday, 11 March 2015, one conscientious mother was dropping her children off at Lismore Public School in Pound Street. As she was doing that, she noticed a suspicious male just sitting in his vehicle looking into the school. She believed he was holding a camera and taking pictures of kids. She doubled back to have a better look and found he had his rear number plate covered over so she confronted him. She ran him off and then contacted police.

Brooke Bowen, the conscientious mother, posted the following on her Facebook page:
 
 
*WARNING*

This morning I dropped my children off at Lismore public school on pound street and noticed a silver Mitsubishi older 4 door (not a car person don't know the actual model) a man wearing dark glasses and a grey baseball cap was sitting across looking in at the school holding up what appeared to me as a camera I thought this was strange when I slowly drove passed so I turned around came back and noticed the back of his number plate was covered up with what appeared to be a towel coming from the boot I pulled up along side of him and asked him wtf he was doing among other explicit content and he shit his self and speed off .. I followed him up Ballina rd towards Goonellebah and lost him at the big round about as he was flying to get away!! POLICE AND SCHOOL HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED 

BE CAREFUL MAKE SURE YOU KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR SUSPICIOUS CARS OR PEOPLE ..

IF YOU SEE THIS DIRTY ROTTEN GRUB HOLD HIM AND CALL POLICE
 

WHITE MALE BETWEEN 40 -45
 
THIN BUILD
 
BEARD AND MU-STASH
DARK GLASSES
 
GREY BASEBALL CAP
SILVER MITSUBISHI 4 DOOR
 
The Principal of Lismore Public School posted about the incident on Wednesday later that night. This is what he had to say:
 

Report of Suspicious Behaviour near school

This morning a parent contacted the school worried about a person who appeared to be behaving suspiciously outside the school. When confronted by the parent, this person left the area.

This incident was communicated to Lismore Police who are investigating.

The person involved did not approach children or behave in a threatening manner, and no other reports have been received to date.

I would encourage parents/carers to communicate messages regarding Stranger Danger to their children and take usual precautions travelling to and from school, but at this point there appears to be no need for unnecessary alarm.

I have also informed staff of the need to be vigilant with supervision.


Martin Gill
Principal

 
Lismore Public School 02Another mum was aware of the situation on Wednesday and reported hearing about a male entering the school on Thursday taking photos on his phone. She believed it was the same man.

Mrs Amor reported the incident on Thursday to police and then decided to do something about it the next day, Friday, 13 March 2015, thinking he would return for a third day in a row. She posted the following on her page on Friday:
 
Feeling abit less stressed,not sure if everyone knows but there was a man at the kids school the other day and he was taking photos of kids,yesterday he went into the school with his phone taking photos me and Wayne were really worried so I rang the police laatnight and we spent early this morning hanging around the school hiding behind trees being detectives hehe knowing hed come back,me and Wayne thought for a second when we saw him lets do it lets just bash him lol so tempting,we stayed there called the police they came from 3 different roads and we were sitting near the round about,they got the scummy pedo,good fast work cops,and thankyou to the mum Brooke who let us know about him in the first place and even chased the mongrel we didnt do much but couldnt just sit at home stressing lets hope they have enough evidence to keep him locked up putrid mutt
 
It has been reported that police have followed up all reports over the last few days.

In relation to the last report, which occurred yesterday morning, police were speaking with the person of interest at Lismore Public School when the concern for welfare was broadcast. The outcome is not known.

The NSW police radio broadcast of the latest reported incident is available here:
 
Lismore Public School
NSW Police Radio Broadcast
Friday 13 March 2015
 

So what, as a community, can we do to effectively protect our children?

The biggest problem with what these people often do is that the rules are inadequate, police and the courts have their hands tied.

In Australia, generally speaking, there is no law restricting photography of people (including children) in public spaces as long as the images are not considered as indecent, being used for voyeurism, protected by a court order (e.g. child custody or witness protection), defamatory or being for commercial purposes .

 
Brooke is trying to use Facebook to help confront the problem. She has created a new Facebook page called 'Northern Rivers Community Street Beat Protection' who describes themselves as:
 
We are a group of parents that have joined together to protect our children while at school from predators that lurk around and prey on our children!
 
Northern Rivers Community Street Beat Protection
 
Hopefully these guys can do some good.

Whatever the solution one thing is for certain ... we all need to look out for each other.

Published 14 March 2015
 

 
 

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