A woman who claims she was urinated on during the Groovin the Moo music festival in Canberra has criticised the response of security guards.

Joana Perkins said she attended the all-ages event on Sunday to keep an eye on her 15-year-old son Sam and was also accompanied by her nine-year-old daughter Ema.

She said she was urinated on by a man who was “drunk or high”, and the response from security guards was “patronising” and “inadequate”.

“We were enjoying ourselves when I noticed a man come up behind me and I thought I sensed something that he was fiddling with his penis and unfortunately I started feeling urine running down my leg,” Ms Perkins said.

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“I turned around and he had his penis out and was weeing on me, at which point I grabbed him by the arm and said ‘you’re coming with me’ and moved him away from where we were.”

Ms Perkins said when she was eventually approached by security her nine-year-old daughter was crying and very upset by the experience.

“Two guards came over and asked me what happened and I said ‘this guy’s just peed on me’ and you could see the pee marks and they took the guy away,” she said.

“Now obviously I had wee down my leg and a crying nine-year-old and I wasn’t going to hang around so I headed out to the exit with my son and carrying my daughter.

“I wasn’t heading out to check on what the security guards were doing, but what I noticed is that they were laughing, patted the guy [who] was absolutely over-the-top inebriated or high and let him go off on his merry way.”

Mother claims security said she was ‘at fault’

However, Ms Perkins said when she approached the security guards, one told her they had kicked the man out of the festival.

“At which point one of the security guards looked at me extremely aggressively and said ‘if you don’t shut up you’ll be chucked out’,” she said.

She also accused a female security officer of telling her that she was “at fault” for bringing her children to the event, and told the ABC she planned to file a formal complaint with the security company.

“She was assaulted and it’s their job to keep an eye on her,” her son Sam said. “I’d expect the security company, even if someone was just being aggressive and drunk, to warn them or get them to leave.

“I definitely didn’t feel like I could rely on any of [the security guards].”

Festival security provider ISEC declined to comment on the incident.

ACT police said overall the crowd at the festival was well-behaved, with one person taken into custody for disorderly behaviour, and another for assaulting a security guard.