An Irishwoman out for a solo run was left "absolutely terrified" after a man emerged from the bushes and performed a sex act on himself in front of her.
April-Joy Serrant was running along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal in the UK last March when the sexual harassment incident occurred.
She explained how she was on a "lonely" stretch of canal at around 12pm when the flasher appeared in front of her.
"I was out for a midday run on a Friday afternoon at my local canal and on my way back, a man came running out of the bushes with his trousers down," she said.
"He laid down on the embankment I was running towards and began masturbating."
April-Joy said she felt "absolutely terrified" by the encounter.
"It was just after all of the news coverage of Sarah Everard and it was a lonely stretch of the canal," she told the BBC's 5 Live Breakfast programme on Tuesday.
"Everything runs through your mind and afterwards, all the things you think you will do, you'll do none of them, so I just turned and ran but was absolutely petrified."
She phoned the police within a few minutes and after taking some details, they said they would send an officer out on Sunday morning for a further statement.
However, she felt the response was insufficient as she was worried for other people's safety along the canal.
"My reaction was, 'Really, we're going to live a man out in the woods doing this, how safe is this for the next woman that walks along?'" she said.
"I was dismayed really."
April-Joy has since got a dog to run with and says she wouldn't visit that part of the canal alone again.
"It doesn't feel safe and maybe that's because of a lot of the media coverage we've seen," she said.
"But the reality is you speak to women up and down the country and the majority have experienced sexual harassment, many have experienced indecent exposure and inappropriate behaviour from males that makes us feel vulnerable, sometimes humiliated, sometimes unsafe.
"Is it any wonder that people feel unsafe to walk down the streets or women feel unsafe to go for a walk or a run by themselves?'
She is now working with the police in her local area about how people can be made to feel safer and how to teach young men valuable lessons on the appropriate ways to treat women.
