A mum has warned fellow parents to be careful after her children were approached by strangers at a bus station.
Mum-of-two Bethany Greaves, 22, was waiting at the bus station in the town centre with her husband and two children - a newborn and her three-year-old son - on Friday (March 11) when they were approached by two women, who she said were around 30 to 35 and had a dog with them.
Bethany, from St Helens, told the ECHO: "It was awful. We saw these two women walk towards us but we thought they'd walk straight past us.
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"I turned round to speak to my husband about something and by the time I'd turned back around, one of the ladies was touching my son's hand. She was saying 'his hands are cold', but she didn't ask if it was ok to touch him, which was very strange to me. I was so shell-shocked about it that I didn't say something at first. Then I said 'can you not do that' and they she just looked at me and carried on.
"She then was making really inappropriate comments like 'he's very tall' and 'oh he's very lovely. They smelt like a very strong alcohol and the dog kept barking."
Bethany said that the incident unsettled her son, who was not his usual "smiley and chatty" self afterwards and was instead quite quiet.
Once arriving home, she rang 101 but was told that there was not much the police could do as they had left the area. Instead, Bethany posted about the incident in the People of St Helens Facebook group, hoping to make fellow parents aware.
In the post, Bethany said that she felt physically sick after the incident, which left her "disgusted". She hopes that by highlighting the unnerving experience, she will hope other parents in the Merseyside town remain vigilant.
