Parent's worst nightmare during Lancashire day out

A family were out enjoying the jubilee weekend at St Anne's Pier when their daughter was attacked by a paedophile.

A Mother has told of how her family were left to feel "like we where the criminals" after a perverted arcade worker targeted her daughter at an Arcade in Lytham St Anne's.

As the sunny weather brought family's out to enjoy the extra bank holidays with the Queen's Jubilee, the family, from Greater Manchester, headed to the Fylde Coast to enjoy a nice family day out together, however, within an hour of arriving in the town, their 15-year old daughter was left frozen when Omar Hayes, a convicted sex pest, molested her as she played on an arcade machine.

Speaking after the conviction of Hayes, who was jailed for six months for the attack on her daughter, the mum of the girl said she was horrified, after learning that the security guard for the arcade had previously been to prison for taking up-skirt photos of schoolgirls.

"How can someone with those kind of convictions be allowed to work in an amusement arcade?" she asked.

The pervert was jailed for nine months in 2016 after he was seen using a mobile phone to film upskirt shots of girls ages 12 and 13 as they waited in a que in McDonalds Blackpool. with the incident being widely reported, with searches of his name coming up with this.

Despite this, Fylde Coast's arcade, which is a magnet for teenagers, still allowed perverted Hayes to secure a job on the pier patrolling the amusement arcade.

• Omar Hayes (Via Lancs Police)

"I noticed him looking at my daughter as soon as we arrived", said the mum, who cannot be named for legal reasons. "He just looked really dodgy. It's mum's instinct, isn't it?

"My daughter put her phone and ring down on one of the 2p slot machines and I thought he was going to rob her.

"I told her to put her things away but then I noticed he was wearing a walkie talkie, and realised he was security so I brushed my fears aside. We gave the older kids some money to play on the machines and took our younger daughter to play on things for her age."

The 15-year-old was playing on one of the arcade machines with her brother, Hayes then moved up beside her, feeding extra money into the machine to ensure she stayed at it. When he started groping her repeatedly, the young girl froze.

The girl's mum said: "We had only been gone about 15 minutes but I said to my husband 'we had better go and check on them'. When they came into our eyeline, Hayes was walking behind, really close.

"I just knew he had done something. As soon as my daughter saw us she burst into tears.

"I just had a sick feeling in my stomach and ran towards them. My husband got to him [Hayes] first and got hold of him. He detained him on the floor but when the other security guards came over they told my husband to let him go.

"They told Hayes to go in the back and we were ushered outside the arcade. I was causing a bit of a scene because he's a worker and he had just touched my child.

"My husband called the police but we were left standing outside for almost an hour while we waited for them to arrive. No-one from the arcade came to help us. It felt like they were watching us more than they were watching him, staying at the front of the arcade to make sure we didn't go back in.

• The amusement arcade on St Annes Pier (Image: Lancs Live/Jude Tolson)

"My daughter was distraught. She couldn't even speak and there was nowhere for us to go. I asked to speak to the manager but they said he wasn't there. It seemed strange, a busy place like that, that no-one was in charge. No-one from the arcade would speak to us. It was only when the police arrived that the manager came and introduced himself. We felt like we were the criminals, like we were the ones who had done something wrong.

"All my husband did was detain him. He got off very lightly when you think what a lot of dads would do in that situation. I'm absolutely disgusted. Even after Hayes was jailed we didn't get a sorry. They must have known about him. His previous convictions are all online."

Judge Guy Mathieson, sentencing, described Hayes as "an unrepentant pedophile" and criticised the pervert after making the teenager go through the ordeal of a Trial, appearing at Preston Crown Court Hayes, of St David's Road South, was jailed for six months.

But, the victims mum says that the sentence does not make up for how his behaviour and actions have affected her daughter, She is not the same person", she said. "She is still a child and hasn't really taken it all in but it has changed her."

St Anne's Pier Arcade was approached by LancsLive on whether background checks had been carried out on Hayes, if they knew of Hayes' previous conviction when they employed him, and the mum's disappointment in how the aftermath of the incident was handled.

A spokesperson for St Anne's Pier Arcade said: "We were made aware of Mr Hayes' conviction on Tuesday when the mum came to the arcade to thank our staff for their assistance in the court case. Mr Hayes had been working for us for approximately four or five days as an arcade attendant when the incident occurred. We are pleased to hear that justice has now been served. At the pier we always take seriously the safety of our visitors."