Falmouth police have warned people to be mindful of the possibility of making false accusations on social media after a man was wrongly accused of photographing children at Sainsbury's.

The force said it was made aware of what was believed to be a suspicious male taking photographs at the supermarket at Ponsharden recently.

However after investigating they found a completely innocent man had been playing with his new camera while waiting for his wife to shop in the store, taking pictures of her "and only her" as she left the store.

A spokesperson said: "Police have viewed the images on the camera of which none involve any children and contain only images of the male’s wife.

"As a result of a comment made on Facebook the individuals post has reached thousands of people and as a result impacted wrongly and unfairly on the male concerned."

They said while it is "important to remain vigilant, innocent behaviour can sometimes be interpreted wrongly," and asked the public to contact police before taking to social media, as they can often easily get to the bottom of things.