A woman who witnessed a man trying to inappropriately touch her daughter and her friend on London Underground has delivered a vital message.
Rhian Roberts, a commissioning editor at the BBC, addressed the unknown man who, she says, “sidled up to two schoolgirls on the Victoria line” on 2 May, and “reached out to grope them”.
“I’m the one who saw you and moved them out of the way,” she wrote on Twitter.
“I’m the mother of one of them for real and the mother of every single girl on the tube while I’m on it.”
At the time of writing, Roberts’ tweet had been ‘liked’ more than 11,000 times and widely shared.
People also talked of similar experiences, such as Gary Watson, who said he “saw and heard some tradesman hooting and whistling at a 13 or 14 year old girl in uniform”.
Others pledged their support, including Stacy Johnson, who wrote: “I have no children of my own but by God I too am the mother of every girl and boy on every bus or tube.”
Statistics from the British Transport Police in 2016 revealed that the majority of sexual assaults on the tube were committed during rush hours.
Between 1 January 2014 and 8 December 2015, 322 sexual assaults were reported on the London Underground network in the hours of 5-7pm, and 291 from 8am until 10am. This compares to just 110 between 11pm and 1am.
HuffPost UK has also heard from women who have experienced cyberflashing – the sending of unsolicited sexual images by phone – on public transport.
If you witness or experience anything that might need to be reported, contact British Transport Police by text on 61016 or online here.