A concerned mother has accused the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) of “not doing their jobs” after she reported an incident where her young children were offered alcohol by an older man who then attempted to lure them into a tent.

She claims that she was told by a police officer who came to her house that the man “didn’t actually commit an offence”.

Five weeks after she had reported the incident, the woman says she is still waiting for the police to take her statement, after being assured by the PSNI Child Protection unit that they would.

A spokesman for the PSNI countered: “Police in Enniskillen received a report of a suspicious approach towards a number of children in the Windmill Heights area on Sunday, August 18.”

He continued: “Officers attended and spoke with the reporting person, and several other people in the area at the time, but were unable to confirm if any criminal offences had been committed.

“The officers further contacted the reporting person a week later but again, no information was forthcoming to confirm any criminal offences had been committed.”

“The reporting person was advised to contact police with any further concerns,” the spokesman added.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, told this newspaper that her two daughters aged six and seven were offered alcohol by the man before he tried to lure them into his tent which had been set up in Windmill Heights, Enniskillen.

The woman claims that only that her children were “smart enough” to say no to the man, that “anything could have happened” to them.

“He was telling them that the tent was nice and warm and cosy, to come in for a party.

“When I reported the incident on the Saturday night it took the police two hours to come out and obviously by that time the man was hiding. The police never took a statement from me or from my children,” said the woman with a look of concern on her face.

She continued: “They asked my children questions like what was the man saying. The police goes, ‘we’ll go down to see if we can have a chat with him’.

“They went down and then they came back and said that he wasn’t there.”

“I suppose I think it was dealt with very badly. That these children, only that they were smart enough to know not to go into the tent, what could have happened,” she added.

“The officer told me the man was not committing an offence and I was like, ‘okay so you can offer a child alcohol and that’s not committing an offence’. To me that’s an offence alone, never mind trying to lure them into a tent.”

After reporting the incident, the woman noted that she never heard back from the police.

“They didn’t take a statement, they didn’t come back to me, this man’s tent was left up there for weeks on end, I contacted Donal O’Cofaigh, he contacted the police in Enniskillen and they didn’t get back to him either.

“Then Donal contacted the Child Protection unit in Belfast. A woman did ring me back and told me that the police would come out and take a written statement from me and my children before my kids started back at school, that has never happened,” said the woman.

The police came back to the area a few weeks after the incident to remove the man’s tent.

“When the police came to lift his tent they were like ‘I’d have concerns about him being around my kids too’ and I said, ‘but the night you came to my house you told me you wouldn’t be concerned and that he didn’t commit an offence, now you are standing there telling me of your concerns’,” the woman shared, adding that she was “very confused”.

Feeling let down by the PSNI, the woman added: “So as far as I can see none of them have really done their jobs properly.”

She continued: “It’s okay my children being smart enough to say no, but who’s to say the next child is smart enough to say no.”

“It just makes me feel like there is no protection for our children out here, there really isn’t. I’m a mother and I rang really concerned that this man was trying to lure my children into a tent to do God knows what, it just leaves it that it looks like the police aren’t doing their jobs protecting anybody now,” she added.

Noting that when she reported the incident, she felt like the police “had no interest”, the woman commented: “Who do you go to then when you need help if you can’t go to the police?”