Man charged over incident at 'dogging' hot-spot has case dropped by prosecutors

The case emerged from an incident on one of the lanes in the Wentworth district, which have become popular with ‘doggers’, people who meet for sex, as reported in the Advertiser late last year.

Although police have been mounting extra patrols in the area and locals have challenged those they suspect of immoral behaviour, such cases are notoriously difficult to prove because if two people are found just sat in a car, they are not deemed legally to be doing anything wrong.

However, a covert camera installed to record illegal fly-tippers instead caught footage of a man engaged in activity which was deemed illegal and he was charged with an ‘exposure’ offence as a result, Rotherham North police Insp Lesley Fretwell told a meeting of Wentworth Parish Council.

However, the case against him was dropped following a review by the Crown Prosecution Service, the legal organisation which represents the state in criminal court cases.

Insp Fretwell told councillors that CPS lawyers had rejected the case on the grounds that, because the incident was filmed rather than physically witnessed, there was no victim.

"They have to prove it beyond doubt in court,” she said.

"He (the suspect) said there was no-one there, had if someone had, he would have removed himself. He had been caught on fly-tipping CCTV.

"There was no-one to say they had seen him and were really offended,” she said.

For a successful prosecution, a witness is needed to say they were offended by what they saw. It had been explored whether that could apply to the CCTV operator, who raised the issue with police, but that was not an avenue lawyers were able to pursue.

The CCTV cameras are monitored by Rotherham Council staff, working from police premises.

Insp Fretwell said a further possibility for tackling the situation was getting a police drone into the area, to check for potentially illegal activity from the sky.

She was told that dog walkers from communities in the area were among those flagging up concerns with councillors.