‘I get called a paedophile on the street and can’t even buy milk – but I’m completely innocent’

When Michael took his young son to play on the water slides at Cardiff International Pool during the summer holidays, the pair expected a fun day full of laughter and happy memories. Instead, it will always be remembered as the day Michael’s hell began.

He was arrested for a heinous crime he didn’t commit, leaving him separated from his family for months and suicidal for the first time in his life. This all happened despite evidence that showed he was in fact an innocent man.

Although the case was eventually dropped by police, Michael said it marked just the beginning of his nightmare, which has since seen him ostracised in his local community and left thousands of pounds in debt. Almost a year on, Michael – who is using a pseudonym to protect his identity – wants to raise awareness of the implications he faced as an innocent man accused of a serious crime.

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“It feels worse now than when it first happened,” he said. “When it first happened, there was shock. Now that’s gone and I’m living as if people think I’m a pedophile. I’m trying to turn this experience into awareness. People need to be reassured that they can use these facilities safely and then go home.”

Explaining what he understands led to his arrest Michael, who is in his 50s, said a teenager complained to staff at the leisure centre that a man had taken pictures of them under the changing room. As Michael ate with his son in the canteen, he said they were seen on CCTV by a member of pool staff and the under-18 teenager.

He said he remembered being one of the only men in the canteen at the time and believed this was what influenced the teenager to misidentify him as the man who took the photos. A document seen by WalesOnline shows how the teenager gave police a description of the man later that night after Michael’s arrest, which did not match Michael’s appearance. Michael also claimed the teenager failed to identify him in an identity parade.

Despite this, an investigation began and Michael was placed under strict bail conditions, which included having to leave his family home and losing his taxi license. He was banned from using public changing rooms and toilets and his children were interviewed to determine whether they should be removed from his care. He said officers had taken 24 electronic devices from his home to search for any relevant material over the past seven years, resulting in no evidence being found.

Although he is an innocent man, Michael said news of his arrest spread throughout his suburban Cardiff community and led people to wrongly assume he was guilty. As a result, he said he is unable to live in peace and has been labelled a criminal.

“It doesn’t stop just when you get the green light,” he said. “Every day I face a new challenge. My neighbors ignore me and slam their doors. My kids’ friends don’t come over anymore.

“When I go into a shop, people stare at me. I’ve had people from another aisle say, ‘That’s him over there.’ If I go somewhere, I now carry a £25 plastic phone with me that only receives calls and texts. That’s because I was only charged because I had a mobile phone with me.

“I have since been prescribed medication for my mental health. I went to get my prescription and was called a ‘nonce’ and a ‘pedophile’. I am too scared to take my son to the barber just in case people say nasty things to me, so my wife has to do it.

“I had to change gyms because someone jokingly said, ‘Here comes the pedophile.’ Every day I open the front door and check that there’s no one waiting there so I don’t get attacked. Sometimes I have to drive two or three miles where no one knows me to buy a bottle of milk because I just can’t walk into a store where people assume I’m a vile or violent person.”

He added: “Why should I live in fear of someone yelling at me, ‘You dirty nonce’? Why? It could have happened to anyone.”

Michael said he was very angry with the way the leisure centre, which is contracted by Parkwood Leisure and subcontracted by Legacy Leisure, handled the teenager’s complaint. He said he believes that as soon as the complaint was made, staff should have called the police to investigate it.

He also believes police should have done more investigation before arresting him – especially as the arrest happened in front of his young son. He said he now lives in fear of what could happen to him or his family because of how it was handled.

“They put my whole family in danger,” he said. “I was very lucky that the father of that teenager wasn’t there. That could have been a bloodbath down there and I wouldn’t have known it was coming my way.”

“Now I have to take medication to try to help me sleep. So the first thing I think about when I wake up is, ‘Is everyone okay in my house? Are my windows broken? And did someone outside write all over my vehicle?’”

He said he is still mentally tortured by what happened and that there is not a minute that goes by without it playing on his mind. He said: “I can’t get a break in my brain from it. I keep telling myself I have to keep going. The mental struggle is every second of every day. It doesn’t matter where I am. I could be skydiving and it would still play on my brain. It doesn’t stop.”

“Even when I’m at home, I think about how the police went into every room, every drawer, taking my belongings. Every day of my life, I can’t get it out of my mind. My family lives in fear every day.”

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Even more painful for Michael is witnessing the impact the past year has had on his family. He said: “My daughter wanted to be there that day, even though she doesn’t like water. My son is afraid to go into any locker room.

“He has to go through life like this. Why shouldn’t he be able to go and have fun on the slides? He talks about prison regularly to me. When I drop him off at school, he hugs me and says, ‘Dad, you’re going to come home, aren’t you?’

“I’m still thousands of pounds in debt from being unemployed. My kids didn’t have Christmas presents last year and they won’t have a holiday this year. I feel so bad. I’m not in a financial position to make that kind of money back.” For the latest Cardiff news, sign up to our newsletter here.

Michael said he believes his data was misused when CCTV footage showing himself was shown to the teenager. Although he made a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), he said he was disappointed that the data protection watchdog ruled the company had “not breached data protection law in this matter”.

Michael is now taking the ICO’s decision to court, as well as raising money to pay for a lawyer to help him take things forward in the future. He is also asking for the company to publicly apologize to him and his family.

Stating his opinion, he said: “This all happened because Legacy Leisure misused my data. It should have been watertight – I should have been able to trust them. It has changed my life so, so much. It’s like being branded and it burns your soul.

“I have to live with the memory of being thrown behind that steel door for all those hours after the arrest. It won’t go away and I live in fear. That’s why I need Legacy Leisure to come forward and issue a public apology so I can live in peace within my own community. I will always live under a dark cloud if I don’t get it. They were in the wrong – not me.

“This isn’t just about my life – it’s about everyone else’s life and what they’re getting themselves into without their knowledge. I want them to say they’ll keep everyone’s data watertight and that this will never happen to any other family again.”

A Legacy Leisure spokesperson said the operator had no further comment. A spokeswoman for the ICO said: “While we appreciate the difficult situation faced by this individual, data protection law is not a barrier to organisations sharing personal information proportionately.

“Having considered the complaint, we are satisfied with the reasoning (the operator) provided to the complainant and the circumstances in which the CCTV footage was viewed. We can only consider complaints relating to data protection law and if anyone is unhappy with the outcome they can request a review of the case.” South Wales Police have also been approached for comment.