Aishley
25th April 2023
I was walking down the lower promenade mid morning in daylight. Occasionally stopping to take a photo or a video I noticed a man ahead who kept looking back at me, had slowed his pace down and I found it uncomfortable as my gut told me he was hanging back to talk to me. He slowed so that I had to pass him, and after a minute or so of knowing he was now following me, I stopped to take a couple of photos in the hope he would walk on. Instead, as I headed down the steps to the beach, he stood on the top step watching me. He started to shout ‘hey, hello, hello, hey lady, you look nice, I like your coat’ and started to approach me. I already felt nervous so said thanks and walked back up the steps to the lower prom, then up the main steps to the upper prom and started to walk towards the main entrance of central pier. I tried to make a phone call to deter him. After I passed central pier, and looking over my shoulder a few times, I was sure I had lost him and decided to go back to the lower prom and carry on with my walk. When I got down there, I looked around and he was no where to be seen, so I headed back towards the pier to take some photos from underneath, as that had been my intention. I reached the pier again, this time from underneath and just as I hit record on my phone, I could see him, he had followed me down and was standing right there, still and staring at me. I rushed back out from under the pier, in the direction of the nearest people I could see, and then back up on to the upper prom where there was lots of people. I went straight across the road to the shop and stood near by the shop owner. From across the road I saw him emerge back again from the direction he had just come to look for me. He was lurking in the area for a moment, and then walked on to central pier.