‘I felt sick, dizzy, out of breath and scared. I still can’t bear to be in a crowd with people behind me’

TEEN MODEL LEFT DISGUSTED AFTER GROPE ATTACK BY STRANGER AT TRAIN STATION

A teen model has told how a train station sex assault left her terrified.

Harriotte Lane said she was left feeling ‘disgusted’ and ‘humiliated’ after a stranger groped her on the backside as she walked through Newcastle Central Station.

And after seeing the pervert convicted the 16-year-old student has waived her legal right to anonymity in a bid to encourage other victims to come forward.

She said: “He walked past and grabbed me on my bum, it was humiliating.

“In that moment I felt disgusted in myself. I instantly got upset and shouted ‘you can’t do that’. Newcastle Central Station He just walked off, it was overwhelming. I didn’t realise it was something serious enough to complain about but when mum told me otherwise I felt like something could actually be done about it.”

Harriotte, the current Miss Teen Tyne & Wear Galaxy, was meeting her mum after visiting a friend when she was targeted last August.

Harriotte was no more than 10ft away from her mum, Sarah, when the attack took place in an underpass.

When she emerged from the tunnel in tears Sarah shouted over to nearby police officers who chased after the man and arrested him.

Steven Cartwright of Washington Crescent, Newton Aycliffe, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court on February 15, 2018.

Cartwright, 55, was sentenced to 250 hours of community service, 20 days of rehabilitation and was ordered to pay £100 compensation and to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years.

But Harriotte, from West Allot- HARRIOTTE LANE

ment, North Tyneside, said the assault did have a lasting impact on her life.

“It was the first time I’d travelled alone and felt really respon- sible and grown up. I’d travelled on trains with my mum so many times for modelling jobs so I knew it wasn’t a problem.

“I was definitely more withdrawn and had bad anxiety because of it,” she said.

“I felt sick, dizzy, out of breath and scared. I still can’t bear to be in a crowd with people behind me, it freaks me out.

“The first time I went back on a train to go to a modelling job in London a week later, I was in a state as it brought back memories of what happened and made me worried it would happen again. “Coming back from London, knowing we would be arriving at Newcastle train station, was difficult. I was physically sick all the way home from York onwards and just couldn’t stop and was shaking. I couldn’t travel on the train for a good while after that.”

Sarah, 44, a marketing director, said the sexual assault had stolen part of her daughter’s childhood.

“I met her at the train station and was smiling and waving at her as I hadn’t seen her for a week and was all excited,” the mum-of-two explained.

“I was waiting on what I thought was the other side of the exit barrier but it wasn’t, so Harriotte walked round and had to go under the footbridge.

“The station was absolutely rammed at the time. I was no more than 10ft from the footbridge and she wasn’t out of my sight until she had to walk underneath. Harriotte had gone from laughing and smiling while walk-