Police hunt for supermarket iPad flasher

Three young sisters were confronted with an explicit photograph as they played with a demonstration iPad in a Bournemouth supermarket. Nine-year-old twins Mollie and Millie, and eight-year-old Maisie Finn, made a beeline for the iPad on a shopping trip to Sainsbury’s at Castlepoint. But the youngsters, who live at Saxonhurst Close in Redhill with their parents Dave and Katie Finn, were horrified to find a full-frontal photograph of a man exposing himself stored on the Apple device.



Their parents reported the matter to Dorset police and also complained to Sainsbury’s, which offered an apology and £150 compensation. Now police investigating the indecent exposure have released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak with. Inspector Mike Claxton said: This happened at about 10.15 am on Tuesday, August 14 in a busy supermarket. I am keen to speak to anyone who may have seen a man acting suspiciously near the electrical aisle of the stole. In particular I would like to speak to the man in the picture who I believe can help us with our investigation.”

Dave Finn, 47, said: “I was disgusted and was straight on the phone to head office but I don’t feel they really took our concerns seriously. They made it sound like it was an everyday occurrence but we were horrified. My mother-in-law was with them and when the girls went to tell her what they had seen, they were grey-faced, apparently. She thought they had broken the iPad at first, they looked so shocked. The girls are only eight or nine and obviously this is not something you would want them to see at that age. It shouldn’t have happened, there should be procedures in place that prevent anything like this happening.”



Dave added they would be putting the £150 in the girls’ trust fund but said he did not think it was adequate. Mollie, who was the first to spot the picture, said: “We all thought it was yucky.” A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s said: “We take rare incidents like this very seriously and have asked the police to investigate. We set the highest standards in our stores and the iPads on display are checked on a regular basis. We apologise for any distress caused to the family; someone from our customer care team has spoken to Mr Finn and we are dealing with his complaint.”