PARENTS were left outraged after a man was seen touching himself in the changing rooms at a leisure centre.

The incident took place on Sunday morning at Clements Hall Leisure Centre, in Hawkwell when a mother who had been swimming with her child walked in on the suspect.

In a post shared on social media, a friend sharing the appeal on behalf of the woman, who must remain anonymous, wrote: “When going to get changed they walked into a cubical to find a man pleasuring himself.”

The woman described the door of the family changing cubicle as being open by more than a foot and said the man was laying on the baby-changing table “playing with himself”.

The woman added: “They acted quickly and took their child away and informed a life guard who did nothing.

“They then informed reception to which the man said “I’ll deal with it”.

“The creep that was pleasuring himself then following my friend and their child and the man on reception let the creep walk out of the building without confronting him.

“Luckily with quick-thinking, my friend followed him outside and got his car and another customer got his number plate before he drove off.”

The police were called and a the suspect was described as slim, taller than 6ft with long floppy hair and was estimated to be in his 20s.

The leisure centre, which is owned by Rochford District Council but operated by Fusion Lifestyle, said they are aware of the incident.

A spokesman for Fusion said: “We are aware of a report of inappropriate behaviour in the changing rooms at Clements Hall Leisure Centre and we are currently investigating this issue.

“We take the safety of all of our members very seriously and are urgently reviewing the facts and want to reassure our members of our concern and diligent examination into such issues.”

Rochford District Council also confirmed they were aware of the incident and that Fusion and Essex Police were investigating.

Essex Police were contacted for comment but did not respond to the request by the time the Echo went to print.

Anyone with information should contact the police on 101.

Alternatively, you can contact independent crimefighting charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

You can also report information online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/give-information-online