Warning after woman is chased down path in Westhoughton

Other women are being warned to be alert if they got out alone.

Yvonne Dickenson was out walking her dog at around 8.15pm on Saturday when the incident happened.

She was walking on the path that runs alongside the train tracks from Church Street to Manchester Road in Westhoughton, on her way back to her home in Bolton Road.

As she got around halfway down the path she saw a man coming towards her.

She grabbed her dog, Panda, by its harness and took it to one side.

As the man walked past she heard him mutter something and said ‘excuse me’.

Then the man then asked where The Pungle was.

Ms Dickenson gave him directions and both she and the man carried on walking.

At first the man appeared to have carried on walking towards Church Street.

But Ms Dickenson, who has a 17-year-old daughter, then looked back again and saw the man running towards her, so she also started running.

The man didn’t shout anything, but just ran towards Ms Dickenson, she said. She had to stop when she was out of breath, but the man also stopped.

She then started running again and the man also set off running towards her.

Ms Dickenson eventually reached the end of the pathway, at Manchester Road, and as she stopped, the man also stopped.

She turned right on Manchester Road where she came across a couple and asked if they would wait with her for five minutes while she recovered from the shock of what had happened before heading home.

Ms Dickenson said the man was aged about 18, white and had mousey hair, he was also wearing a white jacket.

She said: “I don’t know if I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I just think it is important that women should take extra care walking down that path.

“I had a big dog with me and he still ran after me. It is just road walks for me now. I started thinking 'what if?' If it was something innocent, why didn’t he shout?”

The incident was reported to police. Anyone with information should call police on 101.