STAR’S FURY AS TEENAGER ATTACKED ON TUBE Emma: My daughter’s grope hell
ACTRESS Emma Thompson has spoken out after her daughter was sexually assaulted on a Tube train.
Gaia Wise was only 17 at the time of the attack last year.
Dame Emma, 59, said: “My daughter had the experience of being felt up on the Tube and felt very nervous about going out and on the Tube for a long time afterwards. “She said the thing that upset her most was not the act itself but the fact that she felt cowed enough by it not to call him out.
“And I think that what we suffer as women most from is our shame at not being able to say, ‘Why are you doing that?’.”
She urged victims to be less “unkind, to themselves too, whether they were able to defend themselves or not”.
She said they should be “compassionate about their reactions then ask, ‘Now, next time would I be able to do it differently as a woman?’.” The Oscar winner has previously spoken out about sexual harassment in Hollywood.
She labelled movie mogul Harvey Weinstein a “predator” and compared the allegations made against him to the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Weinstein has denied any claims of non-consensual sex.
Dame Emma said movements such as MeToo and Time’s Up had helped highlight abuse and gender inequality.
She added: “We are moving forward. There’s a lot of work being done but it is changing and I am hopeful about it.”