LAURA Lake’s heart rate quickened and her blood ran cold when she spotted a lone stranger watching her swim on the empty beach.
It was a cold March morning and Laura was taking a swim, as the 29-year-old healthcare worker had done countless times without thinking twice – but she suddenly felt very vulnerable.
With no other option, she ran out of the water and avoided eye contact with the man, who was in his fifties and wearing an oversized coat, as he quickly dressed and planned his escape route.
But when Laura turned to leave the beach in Somerset, near her home, she quickly realized she was being followed.
Speaking exclusively about the incident, Laura recalls: “I had gone for a morning swim as I had done hundreds of times before, when I suddenly spotted a lone stranger on the beach, hanging around my things.
“My heart started beating faster and my blood ran cold when I suddenly realized there was no one else around and how vulnerable I was, and it was scary.”
Half-dressed and vulnerable
And since that day in March last year, she hasn’t dared go back to the beach alone.
She adds: “Until then, I regularly visited beaches on my own – in the summer, several times a week – first thing in the morning to try to catch the sunrise or late at night, after work, for a swim or a run, whatever the season – even in December.
“On this particular day I started to feel quite vulnerable and scared to leave the sea – but obviously I had no choice and felt trapped.
“As I approached the beach, he saw me come out of the water, so I grabbed my things and went to the parking lot to change.
“He followed me and started to get closer. I suddenly realized that he was in a very vulnerable position, in an isolated location, and only half dressed.
“Fortunately, a group showed up at the beach with their dog at that moment, and I quickly got in the car and locked the doors before driving to a more crowded parking lot where I could calm down and finish changing.
“I was shocked, angry and frustrated because as a woman I had to think about how I would ‘apparently put myself in danger’ just by wanting to go to the beach.”
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Raped at sea, stabbed on the beach
According to 2021 census data, four in five women felt unsafe walking alone in a park or other open space at night, compared to two in five men.
And there have been a number of serious and worrying attacks occurring specifically along the seafront, many of them in broad daylight.
Last month, a teenage girl was allegedly raped and another sexually assaulted on a beach in Bournemouth at 7.30pm on a Sunday night, with a man accused of the sexual attacks.
In April, Gabriel Marinoaica, 20, was jailed for six and a half years after being found guilty of rape in the same town, after dragging his 15-year-old victim into the sea where she could not swim and attacking her in front to a crowded beach.
And shockingly, personal trainer Amie Gray, 34, from Poole in Dorset, was stabbed to death on Durley Chine Beach on Friday 24 May.
A 20-year-old London man has since been charged with murder and a 38-year-old woman also suffered serious injuries during the attack.
In Margate, Kent, house prices have soared recently, despite having a crime rate of 157 incidents per 1,000 people in 2023 – 79 per cent higher than the national crime rate in England and Wales.
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‘You think about vacation, sunshine’
Jen Smith-Furmage, core member and lead facilitator of Our streets nowthe group which campaigned to make sexual harassment against the law public, says: “There are so many positive associations with the beach – you think of holidays, fun, sun.
“You don’t think about the danger, especially if you’re not from that area and you just visited to have a beautiful day.
“We know that many women are constantly ‘safety planning’ when they leave the house in all public places, be it the gym, schools, colleges and the beach. Is very sad.
“We should never rely solely on educating victims – it’s up to the perpetrator to change their behavior.”
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‘It makes me angry’
For Laura, she used to regularly and happily go to the beach alone.
She moved to Somerset four years ago after growing up in landlocked Birmingham.
She now lives a thirty-minute drive from local beaches, including the one where she encountered the stranger, and used to visit regularly to swim in the sea or run along the coast.
She says: “I originally moved for work and was only going to stay for a few years, but I fell in love with the area, partly because it’s so close to the beach and I love everything about it – swimming, running on the beach, I have a kayak and paddleboard and everything.
“I know so many women who feel the same way. When we are told about beach safety, we are told about water safety and not swimming too far – never about personal safety.
“Since then, I haven’t dared go back to swim alone, and if I’m running or walking, I now have a dog, which fortunately makes me feel safer.
“I was so upset about the stabbing on Bournemouth beach – I was shocked but unfortunately not surprised. We are much more vulnerable.
“I felt really sorry for these women and their families and it also made me think even more about going to the beach alone.”
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Homelessness, drugs and alcohol-related violence: residents no longer feel safe in the deteriorating coastal city
Residents of a seaside town where a woman was stabbed to death on the beach and another was seriously injured say they no longer feel safe at night.
Amie Gray, a 34-year-old football coach, was killed and Leanne Miles, 38, was seriously injured in the attack on Bournemouth beach just before midnight on May 24.
The fashionable Dorset seaside resort, once popular with young families and elderly couples looking for a coastal holiday, has more recently been compared to the “Wild West” following a rise in stabbings, sexual assaults and anti-social behaviour.
Those who live in the city say the situation has deteriorated in recent years as problems with homelessness, drugs and alcohol-related violence have increased and people do not feel safe going out at night.
Some have left Bournemouth for safer areas, while others say they avoid the city center and beaches at night, when crime appears to rise.
Many blamed the lack of police presence and lack of investment and store closures for the city’s demise.
Nicola Childs Ford, 22, a makeup student at Arts University Bournemouth, said: “It’s definitely getting worse.
“I lived in Bournemouth last year but this year my partner and I moved to Poole because it’s much safer.
“In Southampton there are certain parks you avoid, but in Bournemouth it seems like the whole area should be avoided, especially around the square.
“One of my friends was bottled up by a group of teenagers just for being in the Square. Luckily they were with a large group of people, so the group scared them, but I could have ended up a lot worse.”
Photographer Elena White, 38, said: “I’ve lived in Bournemouth for 13 years and it didn’t used to be like this, it’s definitely gotten worse in the last couple of years.
“I wouldn’t go out at night anymore. There have been a few stabbings, there are a lot of incidents of migrants attacking people, especially in the summer, people coming from London and elsewhere and causing problems with anti-social behavior on the beach.”
Pursuit ‘warning’
Teacher Lauren Whedbee, 31, agrees. She has lived by the sea all her life, growing up in Brighton, going to Bournemouth University and now settling in Worthing, where she works as a primary school teacher.
She started to feel insecure when she was at Bournemouth University and now would never dream of going to the beach alone again.
We would have been happy to walk by the sea, but we stopped doing that because we were worried about being attacked.”
Lauren Whedbee
She says: “Growing up, going to the beach alone or after dark didn’t bother me at all, and as a teenager I always felt safe.
“Then, when I went to university in Bournemouth, I started to become aware of some incidents that started to make me think.
“We were warned that there was someone ‘pursuing’ women and I remember that even my parents called from home, worried.
“Until that moment I had not considered that we might be in danger, and before that, on nights out – or even on the way home – we would have happily walked along the seafront – but we stopped doing that as we were worried about the possibility of being attacked.
“I still have friends who live in Bournemouth and they say they have seen the change in atmosphere that would mean I would never go to the beach there alone.
“Now, I have two dogs, but I would never, ever walk them alone by the sea – it feels vulnerable because it’s quite quiet where we are and there aren’t many people around.”
‘Can be very remote and isolated’
Although women have always been concerned about their safety in open spaces, feeling this way on the beach and coastline seems more surprising.
Lauren adds: “When people think of the beach, they think of busy, busy areas that are full of happy tourists, but which can be very remote and isolated.
“It seems like more of a thing now, and certain areas of the beach can be quite like ‘alleys’ – dark and isolated.
“Maybe I’m more aware of their similarities now, and that’s made me more cautious.”
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‘Must be reported’
Unfortunately, because harassment happens so frequently, it’s something that women have become desensitized to – and from a very young age.
Jen from Our Streets Now adds: “The beach is a pretty similar situation to the gym – we know harassment happens there because you’re in your workout clothes, you might be feeling a little self-conscious – unfortunately this can be seen as a opportunity.
“All we can do as women is talk about it – many don’t.
“If something happens, ideally it should be reported, so the police can build a picture of any patterns and know where to increase police presence too – although reporting incidents can be traumatic.”
Laura adds: “It makes me so angry that women think this way when they want to do simple everyday activities like visiting the beach alone – we shouldn’t ever have to fear for our safety like that.”
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
