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Lovers dial M for maximum embarrassment

Marianne Macdonald
Friday 01 July 1994 18:02 EDT
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A DISTRAUGHT mother called in the police after mistaking the sounds of love-making for desperate cries for help from her daughter.

The woman was woken in the early hours by two telephone calls. On the first occasion she heard groaning, moaning and shouting, and assumed it was an obscene call. But the telephone rang again, and this time she heard more groaning and her daughter cry: 'Oh my God]' Then she could hear a man's voice.

It was enough to convince the horrified mother that an attacker was in her daughter's bedroom at her home 100 miles away. The mother became even more concerned when she attempted to telephone her daughter to check that she was all right - and found that the line was engaged.

She dialled 999. Her local police station in Devizes, Wiltshire, listened to her account and contacted their Thames Valley colleagues in Wokingham, Berkshire. Police officers were immediately dispatched to the daughter's home to investigate.

A police spokesman explained: 'Officers rushed round and found she wasn't being attacked - in fact she was quite willing.

'The couple were both bemused and embarrassed at being interrupted. They explained that during the moments of passion one of the couple pressed the automatic last-number redial button on the bedside telephone with a toe. Unfortunately on both occasions it was the girl's mother's phone number. This is a warning for other people - if you're going to indulge in this sort of thing, move the phone.'

Now the mother and daughter have apologised to the police for the confusion - and are attempting to keep the embarrassing episode a secret from the neighbours.

A police spokeswoman in Devizes, where the mother lives, said: 'Everyone was very relieved.'

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