Leeds Roundhay Park flasher: Police hunt man exposing himself to women

Officers from the Leeds North East Neighbourhood Policing Team have been running a dedicated operation to target the area over recent months as part of ongoing work to identify and arrest the suspect.

The most recent incident occurred at about 12.30pm on Wednesday, January 27, when a male was seen exposing himself and committing a lewd act in bushes near to Elmete Hall in Elmete Lane.

Officers who were on patrol nearby responded and searched the area but were unable to find the suspect.

The suspect was described as a skinny male, wearing jeans and a blue hoody with the hood up and a surgical face mask on.

A further two similar incidents had been reported on Friday, January 21, at about 1pm and 1.20pm in the same general area.

A total of eleven incidents have been reported since mid-August last year, all occurring in the afternoon.

Across those incidents, the suspect has been variously described as being between 5ft 7ins and 6ft tall, slim to muscular build, with short dark hair.

Clothing descriptions have included a black hoody or jacket, blue jeans, tracksuit bottom shorts, and a black beanie hat.

Officers from the local neighbourhood policing team have increased their patrols of the areas where incidents have been reported and of the park and surrounding area.

A range of other tactics are also being deployed based on analysis of the pattern of offences.

Inspector Richard Horn, who head the Leeds North East NPT, said: “We remain absolutely determined to keep doing everything we can to identify and arrest this male at the earliest opportunity.

“On the most recent occasion last week, we had officers on patrol nearby in the park who were on the scene quickly but were unfortunately not able to track him down on the ground.

“We recognise the understandable concern that the continuation of these incidents is causing to women using the park and to the community in general and we will be maintaining increased proactive patrols of the area to reassure them while continuing our investigation to find the person responsible.

“Where people can help us is in reporting any ongoing incidents immediately via 999 as a crime in progress so we can respond as quickly as possible, and, where it’s safe to do so, trying to film or photograph the suspect on their mobile phones to assist in identifying him. A clear facial image of him would be invaluable to the investigation."

He added: “We want people to be assured that we are treating these incidents very seriously and will continue to exhaust every possible opportunity to catch this male and stop this happening.”

Anyone with any information that could assist the investigation is asked to contact the Leeds North East Neighbourhood Policing Team via 101 or online via: westyorkshire.police.uk/101livechat .

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