Sign up to the Lincolnshire Live newsletter for daily updates and breaking news Sign up here! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Residents in a quiet Lincolnshire village might have thought they were seeing things over the weekend after a naked man was spotted walking his dog.

The man, who appeared to be in his 50s, was seen by multiple members of the public walking down a towpath along the River Witham near the town of Bardney on Sunday, May 12.

One member of the public, who asked to remain anonymous, saw the man walking along the old railway path at 3pm.

“I said to him ‘what do you think you’re doing?’ and he just said it was a nice day for it,” they said.

“One of the people I was with challenged him and he just shrugged his shoulders.

"He seemed an intelligent sort. It’s a nature walk, not a naturist walk. Maybe he misread the sign!”

The witness said they were concerned about the mixed messages this could send to young children.

“In this day and age where we’re telling our kids not to talk to strangers and not to expose themselves to people, this seems a bit contradictory.”

A spokeswoman for Lincolnshire Police confirmed they had had a call about the man at 5.52pm on Sunday.

"We have received a report of a naked man walking his dog" she said. "We are investigating the matter."

The Crown Prosecution Service states that unless there is any sexual context and if the person has “no intention to cause alarm or distress”, it would be appropriate to take no action unless onlookers are harassed, in alarm or in distress.