Olympic swimming hero Mark Foster caught visiting notorious sex car park four times in a week
BBC sports pundit Mark Foster has been spotted making several trips to a popular dogging site where strangers have sex in bushes and cars.
The 46-year-old Olympian - Britain’s most decorated swimming hero - was spotted visiting the car park in his black Range Rover Sport, clocking up four visits in five days.
The woodland site in Barnet, North London, is within five miles of Foster’s home.
People caught dogging can be arrested for offences including voyeurism and exposure.
On one occasion the tanned 6ft 6ins star, who has carved out a career as a BBC sports pundit since quitting the pool, vanished into the undergrowth alone — returning four minutes later.
The council-owned spot is close to a family picnic area but is swamped daily with people looking for sex.
It is also a favourite with dog walkers and cyclists drawn by its bluebells, deer and stunning views of London.
Foster, 46 — who stunned TV viewers during last summer’s Olympic Games by flirting with fellow pundit and swimmer Rebecca Adlington — lives less than five miles away from the notorious woodland dogging site.
One dogger told The Sun: “It’s a popular place for dogging.
“It’s like a sex playground and absolutely anything goes on in those woods.
“They are used for casual sex.
“There are condoms everywhere.
“You don’t make dates, you just turn up and have sex with whoever turns up.
“Locals walk dogs, but everyone knows it’s also used by people who don’t have time for dates and who go there, get off and go.
“I don’t know why Foster would come here.”
Neighbours beside the Scratchwood Open Space in Barnet, North London, have long complained about lurid acts taking place there.
Former Strictly contestant Foster — who won 47 medals in a glittering swimming career and competed in five Olympics — first visited at 10.43am on November 21.
During a torrential downpour he was spotted briefly walking towards the woods.
Two days later he was again seen in the Range Rover as it parked up in the same car park at 11.26am.
But he did not get out and drove off in less than a minute.
He was also seen in the same vehicle at 12.27pm on November 24.
Half a dozen cars were already parked up with drivers inside.
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Foster, wearing a parka, stepped out of his car and disappeared into the bushes.
He could briefly be seen alone in the undergrowth and emerged less than four minutes later before driving away again.
Finally on November 25 he pulled into the almost empty car park at 11.10am, staying less than a minute.
Several hours later a police car patrolled the car park, which has seen vigilante attacks in the past.
The Scratchwood site is rated highly on websites for people seeking no-strings sex with strangers.
One reviewer said: “Dogging location, open space.
“Lots going on.”
Throughout the week The Sun watched as dozens of lone middle-aged people pulled up in their cars.
Many sat alone for several minutes before following others out of the car park and into the bushes.
Others appeared to be carrying out solo sex acts in their vehicles.
At least one visitor was a man wearing a dress and woman’s wig.
BAD BOY OF SWIMMING
MARK Foster made his swimming breakthrough winning bronze in the 1990 Commonwealth Games and represented Great Britain for 23 years.
But he served a drugs ban in 1995 after testing positive for cannabis and was labelled British swimming’s bad boy. At Sydney 2000 he was thrown out of the Olympic Village by Team GB for wearing an unapproved swim suit. But Foster returned as the nation’s flag-bearer at the Beijing opening ceremony in 2008. That year he launched his media career by appearing on Strictly Come Dancing. And in 2012 he became a pundit, commentating on the Olympic swimming in London.
Foster, dubbed British swimming’s bad boy early in his career, has admitted smoking drugs as a teenager.
He never wed and in a 2011 interview said: “I’ve travelled so much it’s been very, very difficult.”
He once lived at antique dealer Lord Vincent Constantine’s vast estate in St Neots, Cambs and, in the 2000s, shared a flat with hurdler Colin Jackson in Bath.
In his role as a pundit, the star appeared in the BBC’s coverage of both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games.
At the most recent in Rio de Janeiro Rebecca, 27, was seen grabbing his knee under the table.
But Becky, who split from her husband in March, posted on Instagram: “Me and Mark are good friends.”
The pair further fuelled rumours by appearing arm in arm at an award ceremony in September.
Foster, who appeared in the sixth series of Strictly Come Dancing, is also the face of nutritional supplement Wellman and has formed Fitsteps with two Strictly dancers.
Additionally, he is a motivational speaker and runs the Mark Foster Swimming Academy for youngsters.
Also a model, he hosts an annual golf fundraising day for charity Wellchild. Last night Foster said any allegations of improper conduct by him would be entirely false.
DOGGERS' JAIL RISK
DOGGING is not outlawed by any single law.
But anyone who performs sex acts in a public place could be charged with a string of criminal offences carrying jail terms of up to two years. Potential crimes include outraging public decency by committing an “act of obscene nature in public”. A conviction could lead to a maximum of six months in jail. Other crimes include behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to other users contrary to the Public Order Act 1986. Convictions for voyeurism and exposure each carry a two-year jail sentence.