Search on for driver after incident with toddler

Feb 22 2008 by Jule Wilson, The Journal

POLICE are trying to trace the driver of a car involved in a suspicious incident involving a toddler.

The three-year-old was playing in the back garden at his home in North Shields, North Tyneside, at around 4pm on Wednesday when his mother lost sight of him.

The boy was spotted moments later on the pavement at the opposite side of the road next to a car, although the garden gate had been closed at the time of the incident.

As the mother called out the car drove off towards Howdon Road – and the boy told his mother the man in the car had given him a sweet. Chief Inspector Vince Stubbs said: “There was nothing to suggest any attempt to harm the boy, but police are anxious to trace this man to establish what he was doing in the area.”

The man was in his late 30s to early 40s, fat with a fat face, broad nose, messy medium length black hair and a black mark like a mole on his right cheek.

House-to-house enquiries are being carried out and CCTV footage is being studied.

Mr Stubbs said: “At this stage we are treating this as a suspicious incident. There may be a perfectly innocent explanation for this man’s behaviour, but we need to trace him to find out what he was doing there.

“The little boy was unhurt and doesn’t even appear to have been distressed by what happened, but we do need to trace this car driver.

“I must stress that this appears to have been an isolated incident and I would like to assure people in North Tyneside that Northumbria Police are committed to keeping their streets safe.

“However, people will naturally be concerned when anything of this nature happens so we’re putting some extra patrols in the area to offer additional reassurance.”

Anyone with information about this is asked to contact Northumbria Police on 08456 043 043 and ask for North Shields CID or call Crimestoppers anonymous information line on 0800 555 111.

:: In another incident, a 50-year-old man was arrested yesterday on suspicion of trying to snatch a child.

An attempt was made to abduct an eight-year-old boy from East End Pool in Hadrian Square, Byker, Newcastle.

Police said the boy had not been touched or harmed in any way.

The alert was sounded just after 9am and the leisure complex – which has two pools, slides and a wave machine – was busier than usual because of the half-term.

The police spokeswoman said: “A 50-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted child abduction.

“It follows an incident at the East End Pool in Byker just after 9am when a man approached an eight-year-old boy from the pool.

“The boy was not touched or hurt in any way.”

A spokesman for Newcastle City Council, which runs the pool, said he was unable to comment because an arrest had been made.