‘men followed me home and talked about how they would rape me in alley’
A GRADUATE was followed by home by two men who described to each other how they were going to “rape her”.
Shannon Clarke, 22, was walking home after a night out when the terrifying encounter took place along Richmond Road in Cathays in Cardiff.
Ms Clarke, who graduated from Cardiff University in the summer, had been walking back from the Students’ Union with friends in the early hours of Sunday morning.
But after dropping off her friends only minutes from home, she became aware of two men walking behind her.
She said: “It was only four or five minutes’ walk so I thought I would be OK; I thought I would be home in no time.
“I think I had just got to the underpass by Richmond Road when I noticed there were two men behind me.
“I kept on walking but started to get a bit paranoid.
“I listened in to their conversation and they were being really, really vulgar about what they would do to me and how they would grab me next time I was out of eyesight and how they would get me down an alley.
“My initial reaction was just terror, I didn’t know what to do.”
Ms Clarke, a charity volunteer, said she sent a message to her flat mate as part of an emergency plan they had arranged beforehand.
She is now encouraging others to avoid walking home alone late at night, and to create their own security arrangements.
She said: “I’m quite paranoid so I had a plan in place. We have a codeword and I used it so my house mate called me. I was trying to make the phone call sound as if I was just chatting to the person on the line.
“I was crying, but silently, and I was walking down by where the cars were parked.
“They quietened when I was on the phone. My house mate came out and met me after about two minutes.
“I ran into his arms and had a massive panic attack. The minute they saw I was with someone they went.”
Ms Clarke, who has waived her right to anonymity, added: “I don’t think I slept that night.
“I’m OK now, it could have been worse except for the fact that I had a plan in place.
“I just kept thinking if they did grab me I wouldn’t have been able to fight them off and that’s what scared me.
“I just want to make girls aware it really happens. Stay vigilant and stay aware. I was only five minutes away from home. It doesn’t matter how short the distance.”
In a post shared widely on social media, Ms Clarke said: “I was walking back from the SU, along Richmond Road when two men started following me talking about how they were going to rape me and what they’d do once I was out of eyesight from the main road.
“I was lucky I had a friend nearby, lucky we had a code. Saturday night could have gone a lot worse than it did.
“My advice to all of you, don’t be as stupid as I was. Even if it’s a 10 minute walk, take an Uber back if you’re on your own. Make sure you have a crisis code in place, it’s sick we have to but it kept me safe.”
They were being really, really vulgar about what they would do to me and how they would get me