1995, LG, aged 11
During the summer my friend and I used to go to the park to play tennis on the tennis courts in the evening. Our parents were letting us have a bit more freedom at that age and it was a big deal. We felt very grown up. About half an hour into the game my friend stopped dead and said to me: “Don’t look behind you, just keep playing”. Of course I stopped and looked behind me. There was a middle-aged man in the bushes looking at us. His pants were around his ankles and he was masturbating. I turned back to my friend and she said: “Just ignore him, he will go away”. We kept playing and eventually my friend said: “He’s gone”. I didn’t really understand what he had been doing, I just knew he shouldn’t have been doing it and it felt scary. After the game we walked home, we didn’t speak about it, we didn’t tell our parents in case we got in trouble and they stopped us from going out, but we never played tennis in the park again.