Labelled a paedophile, father who checked in at hotel with daughter, 14
‘I was treated disgustingly’
A FATHER who checked in at a hotel with his 14-yearold daughter was questioned by police after staff reported him as a suspected paedophile.
Karl Pollard, 46, had taken daughter Stephanie to visit her grandmother in hospital before she underwent treatment for lung cancer.
But soon after arriving at the Travelodge, staff contacted police, assuming he was a paedophile. It was only after Stephanie was interviewed by officers that they believed he was innocent. Mr Pollard said: ‘My mum has just been diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer – we’re not sure how long she has left. I wanted to take Stephanie to visit her before she started treatment.
‘It was an emotional trip already, but it was made so much worse. One minute I was brushing my teeth, the next I was being told I was a paedophile.
Mr Pollard and his daughter had travelled for four hours from their home in Lampeter, south-west Wales, to discover there was only one room left at the budget hotel in Macclesfield, Cheshire.
‘When we arrived the receptionist gave me a weird look but I thought nothing of it,’ he said. ‘We went up to the room to get unpacked and ready to see my mum. About ten minutes later there was a knock at the door. A policewoman was standing there’.
The hotel staff had reported him after assuming that he was a sexual predator with a girl he had groomed.
Mr Pollard, who cares for his wife Kim, 45, who has multiple sclerosis, said: ‘I thought something had happened to my mum or my wife.
‘But [the policewoman] said: “We’ve had a call from Travelodge. They believe you are a paedophile grooming underage girls.”’
He explained that he was Stephanie’s father but the officer did not believe him.
Mr Pollard said: ‘The officer had to ask her loads of questions to prove it. My daughter was in tears. She was so scared and thought I was going to get taken away.’
The police eventually accepted that Mr Pollard was innocent.
‘I was treated disgustingly,’ he said. ‘The worst was my daughter – she was just so distraught.’ Travelodge has apologised to Mr Pol- lard given him a full £150 refund. A spokesman for the chain said: ‘All our hotel teams are trained according to national guidelines supported by the NSPCC.
‘In the past, proactive action by our hotel teams has helped to safeguard young people at risk. In this instance we got it wrong.’
Cheshire Police defended the hotel staff’s actions.
A spokesman said: ‘Police were called at 3pm on Thursday February 8 to reports of suspicious activity at a hotel on Waters Green in Macclesfield.
‘Staff at the Travelodge did the right thing by reporting what they believed to be suspicious activity to officers, although thankfully there was nothing untoward and it turned out to be a misunderstanding.’
This is not the first time staff working for the chain have falsely assumed that a father was grooming his child.
Last year Craig Darwell, 46, was accused of being a sex offender after he booked a room to share with his daughter Millie, 13, at a Travelodge in Chertsey, Surrey. The widower, who was treating Millie to a visit to nearby Thorpe Park, was also quizzed by police.