Please be aware

[Button#]

I once found a toddler outside the national sports centre in crystal palace crying for her mum. She said they'd been swimming, she would have had to go up loads of steps and through some barriers to get out, not to mention past a couple of very deep swimming pools. I agree with the OP, it's something to be aware of, good intentions or no.

 

[mummyof3babas]

this has really panicked me but my sons dont walk behind they hold my hand all the time as this is my main fear:/ i was puzzled how the boys mum were so calm when she confronted the man i would have gone to town on him!!
i dont think it was innocent but who knows

 

[Bevziibubble]

Scary stuff It could have been totally innocent, but it doesn't sound like it tbh. It's always good to be aware of the dangers.

 

[baby D]

I just don't know what to make of the video. Certainly not enough info to justify an opinion either way BUT, he does literally move in on the child and walk him away instantly -- didn't seem to be much looking about for the possible parent?

 

[Abigailly]

The police have confirmed it was completely innocent though....

 

[CatStorey]

I agree when you see the video of the man just grabbing the boy and leading him away it seems soooo dodgy.

But now having read the report especially this bit - 'In a case of mistaken identity the man thought the boy was another woman's child and had wandered off from her in Derby's Intu Shopping Centre.' What I think happened is -

The man was sitting on a bench/standing outside tyhe shop in the Centre. He saw a mother with a similar looking little boy. Next thing he see's the boy walking away into the shop. He's 80 years old so perhaps his eyesight isn't great and he really thought the 2 boys were the same. He runs over and grabs the boy, leading him back to where the other mother was. He obviously rushed in too fast without thinking bless him.

I might be wrong but thats just what I feel may have happened.

 

[pinkpolkadot]

Wow poor guy, Daily Fail strikes again eh?

Well at least they have updated the article now.

I do agree though that I always worry when I see a toddler trailing behind, I couldn't do that with mine anyway as she is a bolter!

 

[Reedy]

TBH its so shocking the amount of people that automatically accuse the man and say nothing of the mother who is letting her young toddler walk aimlessly behind her without a backwards glance as to whether or not he's still walking with her.
I agree with someone else, i believe he maybe was walking behind them both & the mother hadn't turned around to acknowledge that the child was with her for sometime and he could have been walking next to another woman/family who had gone in to another shop & he thought that the child was with them, it doesn't show you what happened before they reached the shop with the cctv so we cant just assume this man is in the wrong, he's 80 years old and seeing a very small child seemingly wandering away from his parents he thought he was doing the right thing, I think my grandad would have done the same.

its such a sad world will live in now that parents let their kids wander behind them without a backwards glance for a good while and its the person who approaches the apparent lost child who gets attacked for what they think is the right thing.