WHEN I was a policeman in Middlesbrough, we tried to do something about the problems caused by prostitution.

Innocent women were complaining to us that they felt embarrassed, angered and defiled when walking through the red light zone and being approached by men in cars.

This is a classic example of the fear of crime. It is not so much the worry that your house or car will be broken into; it is those moments when your heartbeat rises when you see something that intimidates and unsettles you.

I gave that project my full support at the time, but only this week have I come fully to understand what those innocent women were telling us.

On Tuesday I was alone, driving home on a fast road outside Teesside at about 6.15pm. It was getting dark. I got a call on my mobile. I realised it would be a long call so I pulled into a lay-by. I turned off my engine, leaving just my sidelights on.

Within a few seconds, another car slowly pulled alongside me and parked about 7ft away, its single male occupant looking at me. He moved on, to be replaced by another car, its single male occupant looking at me. In my mirror, I noticed another car - again with one male occupant - had drawn up behind me.

Within two-and-a-half to three minutes there were nine cars in the lay-by, including mine. All had single male drivers, all were slowly moving around looking at one another, including me. I felt like I was in the sea with sharks circling around me.

It didn't take 27 years of police training to tell me that something wasn't quite right here. I decided to leave.

Yet two of the cars followed me. I drove twice round a roundabout. They drove twice round a roundabout. I accelerated hard; they accelerated hard. It was only when I braked suddenly that they began to get my message - although I guess my hand signals might have told them something.

When I got home, I informed the police. They confirmed what I had suspected. This lay-by was a homosexual haunt, a pick-up place. After eyeing one another up, they follow each other home...

I have since learnt that it is notorious in the local area, but I was surprised, shocked and disgusted that such things go on - one of the reasons I am writing about it is to warn others who might stumble upon it.

I have absolutely nothing against homosexuals. Indeed, in the past I have written in defence of them. There is nothing wrong with what they - or heterosexuals - get up to in the privacy of their own homes.

But a lay-by on a main road in the North-East is very public. These men do the gay rights cause absolutely no good. They are indefensible in the same way that the men who prowl the streets of Middlesbrough looking for prostitutes are indefensible.

Three weeks ago my family's home was burgled. We lost £34,000 of property - although that figure does include a new car.

I took the burglary quite philosophically. But this incident in a lay-by really caused my heartbeat to rise. I had only been the victim of anti-social behaviour, but I felt embarrassed, angered and even defiled.

And now I understand exactly what those women felt in Middlesbrough and why we were right to target all instances of anti-social behaviour which do so much to increase the fear of crime.

LAST week I said how a lot of people that I met had something to complain about. They were sick of their job, sick of the Government, sick of football, sick of this, that and the other. I wondered whether there was some kind of miserable malaise infecting society.

On Monday, I was exonerated. A survey discovered that 33 per cent of Britons describe themselves as "downright miserable", 25 per cent see no hope for the future and ten per cent believe they would be better off dead. I can only hope that there are no dodgy lay-bys in the afterlife.