WARNING TO ALL PARENTS

[EMIDLANDS]

I have just returned from the caravan holiday from hell in the Lake District. My mother, husband, two children and I were booked in a very family-friendly campsite at Ullswater from Monday to Friday last week. We were having a fabulous time - until 2.30am of Wednesday morning. We were all in the caravan asleep, apart from my 14 year old daughter who was zipped up in a tent in the awning outside the caravan door. My mother was awoken by a noise and looked out of the caravan window - and to her horror saw a young man aged between 19 and 22 kneeling at the door of the tent, his body inside, with his pants and trousers pulled down. She screamed and banged on the wall, which immediately scared him away and he ran out of the back of the awning. The screaming woke the rest of us up and we grabbed our 14 year old and pulled her in the caravan, and immeditely dialled 999. The police sent sniffer dogs and foresic officers but the intruder had escaped. We are convinced that this person was about to rape my daughter, he had crawled past our cases and bags and hadn't touched them. After the police left we came home straight away. We are now all terrified and my daughter is completely traumatised. We will never go caravanning again, let alone visit the Lakes. There was no security on the camp and we couldn't even get hold of the owners until 9am. So please - pass this message onto as many campers as you can to warn them of the dangers of leaving your kids outside. I appreciate it is a rare thing what we experienced, but we never thought anything like this could happen to us.

[Poppy]

What a horrible experience! I can fully understand you not wanting to go near a camp site again. You have been very unfortunate though as we have camped/caravanned for a long time and never come across anything like this.