A man who visited the seaside with his family has had his life turned upside down after a stranger’s photo of him was shared online and went viral.

Ali Bronson says his trip to Skegness beach has ruined his life – after he was falsely accused of being a paedophile.

26-year-old Ali, from Coventry, spoke to police and has had the image removed from the internet, but not before he’d received plenty of abuse.

Ali explains:

It was a kid’s day out, there was around 17 of us – my sisters and cousins.

Part way through the day, my cousin, uncle and I went for a cigarette because we didn’t want to smoke in front of the children.

We had one, looked out to sea and walked back – we were there for 10 minutes.

We came back and the next day my friend sent me a screen shot, it had something like 20,000 views – and I’m thinking what is going on.

Ali didn’t realise how bad the situation was until he scrolled down and looked at the comments.

He says, quite rightly:

It is not nice being called a paedophile.

It is affecting my life really badly, I do not want to leave the house.

I’m just sitting at home, I cannot run my business – I do not want to show my face there.

I need to get back out there, I have to clear my name.

There is no evidence – I could do the same, I could just go to the seaside and take a picture and ruin someone’s life.

If the poster was intimidated I would have spoken to her, she could have just asked me.

Ali plans to take legal action.

Image VIA

Some people just have the worst luck eh? One minute you’re enjoying a family day out, soaking up the rays and smoking a cigarette with your uncle and cousin, and the next you’re being falsely accused of paedophilia and going viral on the internet thanks to some paranoid stranger who took a photo of you. Just the type of thing that’ll completely cock up your weekend. 

Here’s hoping Ali can get this all sorted quick time. For a collection we put together of 16 disturbing photos with terrifying back stories, click HERE.