A FATHER from Basildon claims he was victimised by staff at a swimming pool, who told him he posed a threat to children.

Ashley Murray felt he was being accused of a being a paedophile when he took his four-year-old son to a swimming lesson at Basildon Sports Village last week.

After sitting in the viewing gallery of the main pool he said he was approached by “aggressive” staff who said he looked suspicious while he waited for his son to arrive at the pool from the changing rooms where he left him.

But Charlie was actually being taught in the nearby learners pool, which has a separate viewing area, and staff at the leisure centre say it was Mr Murray who was abusive when asked to leave the gallery due to a school swimming lesson taking place in the main pool at the time.

Mr Murray, 32, who lives in Marney Drive, said: “I knew what they were getting at and I thought there was no way I was going to be treated like that. The manager was quite in my face and aggressive and told me I needed to leave.

“I’d never been so embarrassed. I’m surrounded by six or seven members of staff and I just felt so uncomfortable to be honest.”

He added: “They were very insinuating and obviously chose their words wisely by saying I pose a threat to the children that were there. There’s no other way that you could take something like that.”

Staff at the pool said that, after a full investigation which included a review of CCTV footage from Thursday morning, and collection of witness accounts, they were confident they had dealt with the situation correctly.

A spokesman for Everyone Active who operate Basildon Sports Village, said: “Due to safeguarding policies and out of privacy for the schools we do not allow spectators into the main pool viewing area at times when schools have exclusive usage. This is a company-wide policy and was explained to the customer at the time.

“The customer did not comply with our initial requests to leave the viewing area, at which point he started displaying aggressive behaviour towards staff members and using abusive language.”

They added: “Ensuring both our customers and our colleagues are treated with respect is important to us and we will not tolerate abuse in our centre.”