An advocate has told of her disappointment after police dropped her case when she complained that a man exposed himself to her in a pool.
Emma-Jane Taylor, 50, was swimming at her local gym when she says a man got into her lane and dropped his swimming shorts while she swam towards him.
The advocate for child sex abuse victims made a complaint to Thames Valley Police after the encounter "sent shivers" down her.
However more than six weeks after, Emma-Jane says the case was dropped because of what she calls a "loophole in the law".
Under Section 66 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, a person can be found guilty if they "intentionally expose his genitals and he intends that someone will see them and be caused alarm or distress".
The man who dropped his shorts in front of Emma-Jane claimed he didn't mean to do it, therefore making it difficult to prove intent.
Emma-Jane told the Mirror: "There's a huge loophole in the law for indecent exposure and now that we've seen what happened with Wayne Couzens the government really needs to look at it.
"I want to see the law changed on this.
"We cannot as women in society allow men to drop their shorts wherever they are and then say 'I didn't mean to cause offence'
"The law suggests that unless you can prove it was intentional it is your word against his, and in my case, there was CCTV that showed it".
Emma-Jane is planning on launching a campaign to challenge that exposing yourself has to be intentional and has to have the intent to cause offence.
On March 6, Couzens was jailed for a further 19 months in prison for indecent exposure in the weeks before he killed Sarah Everard.
The flashing incidents took place in woodland and at a fast food restaurant in Kent between November 2020 and February 2021.
The female staff affected were left “shaken, upset and angry”.
On the last occasion, staff took a registration number and identified the car from CCTV as a black Seat which was registered to Couzens.
A credit card in his name was used to pay, while ANPR and cell site data were used to track the defendant’s car in the area at the time of the incidents.
Passing sentence, Mrs Justice May, said: "He could have easily been traced by his car and his card. Nothing was done by the police at the time.
"Sarah Everard was taken three days later on 3 March 2021.
"The fact that no police came to find him or his black car, to question him about these incidents, can only have served to confirm and strengthen in the defendant's mind a dangerous belief in his invincibility, in his power to dominate and sexually abuse women without being stopped."
Emma-Jane said: "I didn't go to the pool that day to have a naked man looking back at me.
"I work in the child sex abuse advocacy space and I do a lot in this movement. I have my own trauma and I've done 25 years of therapy, but not every woman has had that and a lot have told me they wouldn't have taken it this far.
"Men can't think it's okay to just get naked, I think he did it for a cheap thrill.
"I don't think he did this innocently because there were changing rooms two metres away from the pool."
Emma-Jame said she reported the incident after it happened on January 18.
She said: "I called the police a week later asking if anyone would take my statement and I was told they were very busy and these cases are low priority."
She said when she gave her statement over the phone she heard a lot of background noise of "police laughing and coffee cups clinking" making her feel uncomfortable sharing sensitive information.
Emma-Jane added: "When he sent my statement it was illegible and it wasn't acceptable."
Police came to her house to take a second statement 29 days after she says she was flashed.
She also asked about getting Victim's Support but when she was able to speak to them over the phone it was a Friday afternoon and was told they were off at the weekend.
She said: "Indecent exposure is the beginning of more dangerous situations and if you let a man get away with it then it can escalate like the way we saw it with Couzens.
"I went to the swimming pool and the man in question also gave his statement and claimed he tried to rearrange his pants and thought he had enough time before I turned around in the lane.
"Either way you were taking your shorts off in a pool - I saw that and I was offended."
She has since started a Victim Right to Review and made a complaint to the force.
She added: "I want to take a stand because men just can't do this - it's not just about what happened to me.
"The law says it has to be intentional or show that it was intentional to cause offence so it can legally be acted on, but because he said it wasn't intentional it was dropped."
A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said: “It would be inappropriate for Thames Valley Police to comment about an ongoing complaint.”
