Police 'refused to make Sheffield flasher e-fit look like celebrity in case it made popular TV comedy show'
A victim of a Sheffield flasher says police refused to alter an e-fit to look more like a celebrity, fearing it would end up on a TV comedy show.
A victim of a Sheffield flasher says police refused to alter an e-fit to look more like a celebrity, fearing it would end up on a TV comedy show.
The woman, who The Star has not named, got in touch with South Yorkshire Police after spotting a man exposing himself and performing an indecent act in Endcliffe Park in the city.
She went through the process of putting together an e-fit.
But after seeing the picture that police experts had put together, she then asked if the image could be altered to make it look a bit more like a well known celebrity who she thought the flasher resembled.
She said: “I asked them if they could make it look a bit more like Paul Hollywood. They refused because they said they said they didn’t want it appearing on Have I Got News for You.”
She is however very clear that the man she saw in the Sheffield park was NOT ‘Bake Off’ star Paul Hollywood. But the man had short grey hair and resembled the celebrity.
She had been walking her dog through the park when she saw the flasher, in 2022. He ran off.
She said another man who had been there at the time went looking for the flasher after the incident because he was concerned about what had happened.
The Star approached South Yorkshire Police about the e-fit, but they said they would not be commenting on the claim.
Several e-fits have been issued over the last few months following reports of a flasher in that area, all featuring a man with grey or white hair.
The most recent appeal related to an incident early on the morning of November 29, when police said it was reported that a man exposed himself and ‘committed a sexual act’ in front of a 45-year-old woman in the park.
The man then allegedly ran away in the direction of Rustlings Road.
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Other reports of flashers at the park this year have included:
> A man shouting to two women while exposing himself at the side of the river in September.
> A man indecently exposing himself to a woman as she walked into the park from its Ruslings Road entrance in June.
> An incident of indecent exposure reported in April, 2024.
> An incident of indecent exposure reported in February this year.