I pretended to be drunk to catch predators on night outs – one creep left me terrified… I couldn’t believe what he tried | The Sun
“How many of you have experienced sexual harassment?” I ask.
Almost every hand in the room is raised.
This might not be surprising if I was asking women, but I’m speaking to a group of school girls – and 15 out of the 17 have already experienced some form of sexual harassment, often while wearing their uniforms.
“I find that it happens more in uniforms, which is disgusting because it identifies we’re obviously under 16 – that’s what uniforms are for, children,” one girl tells me.
Another tells me the incident that sticks out the most to her is the first time she was harassed, when she was just 10 years old. “It was… a group of guys in a park. They said they wanted to have sex with me and I was just like, I didn’t really even know what sex was,” she explains.
I’m investigating the prevalence of sexual harassment – and the harrowing threat women and girls face – for a new Channel 4 documentary, Undercover: Sexual Harassment – The Truth, airing tonight at 10pm.
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Exclusive research from Plan International, shared with Channel 4 Dispatches, found half of school girls have experienced public sexual harassment while wearing school uniform, including being groped, stared at, cat-called, followed or wolf-whistled.
When it was warm in the summer, a bus driver would ask us to take off our tights
This experience is sadly all too familiar for the young girls I am speaking with, some of whom have already had terrifying experiences at the hands of sometimes much older men.
One recounts: “I would take the bus to school. And when it was warm in the summer, a bus driver would ask us to take off our tights. He would say, ‘If you’re too warm, you can take off your tights. Take off your skirts for me.’
"He would stand there and watch. And I never wore my school skirt again.”
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The girls are so sick of the harassment, they and their teacher are petitioning for sexualised school uniforms to stop being sold in shops and online.
They hope this might put an end to the harassment they regularly suffer on their way to and from school.
The documentary also sees me go undercover in a bid to expose the grim reality women face on nights out.
Across one weekend I go on two nights out in Liverpool and London, acting drunk and separated from my friends. In both cities, the results are shocking.
Followed back to hotel
My first experience of harassment comes in Liverpool’s busiest nightlife area, in the early hours of the morning.
I stumble over to a bollard and slump myself on it, attempting to roll a cigarette with my eyes half closed.
“How are you?” The man seems to appear from nowhere, leaning over me as he begins to fire questions.
He asks where I’m going, then suggests we go to a bar or a hotel; I barely respond, slurring occasionally that I’m going to find my friends, or that I’m fine on my own.
I get up to start making my way back to my hotel, stopping and starting and changing directions a few times to see if this shakes him off.
Nothing seems to deter him – and despite me repeatedly telling him I’m fine on my own, less than 10 minutes after approaching me he follows me into my hotel room.
Our hotel room is rigged with secret cameras, I have a security guard hiding in the bathroom and I knew this outcome was a possibility – but nothing could prepare me for how afraid I am as I confront the man who has followed me home.
“Why have you followed me into my hotel room?” I ask, heart racing.
It takes all of my courage to confront this man, despite having security
At no point have I given this man any invitation, or any suggestion that I want him to come home with me. I repeatedly told him I was fine on my own and that I didn’t need any help, yet here he is – claiming “we came together”.
It takes all of my courage to confront this man. Despite having security nearby I am feeling incredibly vulnerable and I quickly want to get him out.
I ask him to leave, and breathe a sigh of relief as he makes his way towards the door. I think the ordeal is over until he turns around and demands: “Come on, give me a kiss.”
My experience was harrowing, but I know it was not isolated.
An exclusive YouGov survey for Channel 4 found that 1 in 4 women in the UK surveyed have been followed on a night out, 82 per cent are conscious of the threat of predatory behaviour from men when walking alone in the dark, and 1 in 4 women surveyed had been raped or sexually assaulted on a night out.
In fact, this incident is just the first of multiple I experience across two nights out.
Creeps 'working together'
To prove this kind of harassment is not exclusive to one location, and can happen in any busy city centre on any given night, I went to London’s Leicester Square the following night to document my experiences again.
In some ways, what happened in London was even more sinister. At one point I was followed by two men who appeared to be working together.
One man noticed my seemingly drunk state and made an approach, while his friend followed closely.
After a few minutes of following me as I stumbled down the road, the second man also approached in what felt like a terrifyingly coordinated – and predatory – act.
Feeling out of control, I messaged my team – and the men appeared to get spooked.
Followed again in a different city
Later that night I am followed again, this time by a man who has been loitering outside one of the busy clubs.
I take a rest at one point, pulling out my phone to send a message and see him staring at me from across the road.
It is only when we watch our footage back that we discover the same man has been hanging around the area for over an hour, and following me for five minutes before I notice him. Eventually, he makes his approach.
“You are not fine, you’re drunk,” he tells me, as he repeatedly offers me a taxi and follows me down the street.
At one point, he grabs my hand and rubs it on his crotch as I try to move away.
I stumble down the street with the man in pursuit, telling him I’m fine and that I’m going home.
As I say in the film: “To go out on two nights out and to have been targeted in the way that I was, repeatedly, is horrifying… It felt like… an organised approach to trying to get drunk, vulnerable women to leave with them.”
Change is needed
In making this film I have reflected on all the times I have felt vulnerable. Whether it’s walking home late at night, losing my friends on a night out or having too much to drink – I’ve realised there have been plenty of times I’ve felt afraid.
Putting myself in the same position, but sober, was eye-opening and made me realise how urgent the need for change is.
As my weekend draws to a close I feel relieved the ordeal is over, but harrowed by my experiences and troubled to think these men are among us, hiding in plain sight.
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For many women, these experiences will feel familiar – but in making this film I hope to provide an insight for men to the grim reality we face.
Undercover: Sexual Harassment – The Truth is on Channel 4 tonight at10pm and available on All4.
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