Police at Westlands Primary School in Sittingbourne after girl approached by man in car
Police have been outside a Sittingbourne primary school today
after a man tried to entice a girl into his car.
The youngster - believed to be aged nine or 10 - told staff she
was making her way into Westlands Primary School yesterday when she
was approached.
She was walking along Homewood Avenue at around 8.35am when
a bright-coloured car pulled up alongside her.
A young man who was driving the vehicle is then said to have
wound down the passenger side window and told her to get in.
When she told him 'no' and carried on walking, he is said to
have repeated the line with more force in his voice.
The scared youngster ran into the school and reported it to
staff who then contacted Kent Police.
Officers arrived at the school at just before 8.55am where they
took a statement from the child and looked at the school's
CCTV.
The girl's parents, who were also contacted immediately,
took her home shortly afterwards.
Officers were outside the school gates yesterday afternoon and
again this morning.
Head teacher Lynne Pearson said: "My deputy head teacher Louise
Hopkins dealt with the matter as I was off site attending a meeting
at Maidstone at the time. I understand the girl was very
distressed.
"We sent a note home with children to give to their parents at
the end of the day saying there had been an issue with a child
trying to be enticed into a car by a man and encouraged them to
report anything that they felt was unusual to either the school or
the police.
"We also put a message on Twitter and let our sister school
Regis Manor [which is also part of the Swale Academies' Trust] know
about the incident so they could alert their parents too.
"Because of our safeguarding measures we have a list of the
children who walk home alone so we were able to contact their
parents to see if they wanted to collect them at the end of the day
instead.
"We do stranger danger a lot in assemblies but we have reminded
parents of going over this with their children at home too."
A Kent Police spokesman said: "The man made no attempt to leave
his vehicle. There have been no other reports of this type at the
school and police are treating this as an isolated incident.
Anyone with any information about the incident is asked
to call Kent police on the non-emergency number 101.
28/02/13
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