FLASHING his car lights repeatedly, a man reportedly followed home a woman who had pulled into a notorious ‘dogging’ layby to answer her phone.

Police have urged the person involved to formally report the matter to them after it was brought up at a Police and Communities Together (PACT) meeting in Darlington.

Minutes from the meeting outlined the incident, said to have unfolded from the layby next to the Swan House roundabout near Heighington.

The minutes said: “The anti-social behaviour in this layby is once again increasing.

“A resident of Redworth pulled into the layby to answer a phone call and was followed home by a car which repeatedly flashed her.

“On reaching home she asked [the motorist] what the problem was and he said he had made a mistake and drove off.

“This was a very frightening experience for her.”

Police were asked to patrol the layby, which has been linked to the practice of dogging for several years.

Inspector Chris Knox encouraged the woman involved in the alleged incident to come forward as he urged members of the public to report offences happening in the layby.

He said: “If someone has been followed home, police would like members of the public to report this – if we don’t know about such incidents, we cannot do anything about them.”

In relation to the suggested rise in anti-social activity around the layby, he said officers were aware of people using the area for sexual purposes but believed it to be consensual activity that typically took place in a disused area behind a fence that had been breached.

Insp Knox said such activities would be treated as though they were “behind a closed door” and not as an offence as long as reasonable steps were taken to ensure they were taking place out of sight of the public.

However, he said officers wanted to know about any sexual offences and suspicious or anti-social behaviour taking place in the actual layby.

He said: “If someone is getting followed home, that’s exactly the kind of thing we want to know about.

“However, most of the activity going on around the layby is down a pathway that had clearly been fenced off and anyone going down there is likely to be going there for consensual purposes.

“Although it might not sit comfortably with some members of the public, we have to understand that this activity goes on in many locations and we’ve got to be careful – if we try to prevent it occurring, all we’ll do is displace it to areas where it could be of a bigger concern.”