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27
Jan
Police investigate three separate reports of man approaching schoolgirls in Harrogate
Police are investigating three reports from the past week of a man, believed to be a delivery driver, approaching girls in the Harrogate area.
The first incident happened on Monday, January 20, when a man described as a delivery driver approached a 15-year-old girl on Cornwall Road, and asked for directions before asking her personal questions.
The second incident, which we reported this morning, happened on the same day on Duchy Road – just around the corner from the first incident – when a man described as wearing a high-visibility top and carrying a delivery console asked a 17-year-old girl for directions before asking her personal questions. The man eventually walked off.
The third incident happened on Thursday, January 23, when a 15-year-old girl was approached by a man wearing a hi-vis vest in the Willow Drive area of Harrogate, off Whinney Lane.
The man began asking the girl personal questions and followed her down the street. He then left the area after she went home and told her mother, who immediately reported the incident to North Yorkshire Police.
The man is described as of Asian or Indian appearance, was wearing a high-visibility top and spoke with a foreign accent.
In a statement, a spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said:
In all instances the type of questions the man asked made the girls feel very uncomfortable and concerned by his behaviour.
The investigation is ongoing to identify and locate the man, who is believed to be a delivery driver.
If anyone has been approached in a similar way, we ask them to contact North Yorkshire Police, either online via the force website or by calling 101 and reporting the incident to the Force Control Room.
In the meantime, if anyone is approached in similar circumstances, we advise you not to engage with the man and to report it to the police as soon as possible on 101. If your safety is threatened, please call 999.
As we reported earlier, several schools have written to parents following the Duchy Road incident, warning them to be on their guard and advising pupils not to speak to, or accept lifts from, people they don't know.
It is thought that this publicity may have prompted the first incident to be reported, as North Yorkshire Police only heard about it on Saturday, January 25 – five days after it happened.
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