British reserve partly to blame for rise in sex assaults on trains, say campaigners

THE unwritten rule of commuting by train – that you should not interact with your fellow passengers – makes it harder for women to speak up about being sexually assaulted, campaigners have said.

Figures obtained by BBC Radio 5 Live Investigates show that the number of reported sexual offences on trains has more than doubled in five years from 650 in 2012-13 to 1,448 in 2016-17. The majority were sexual assaults on females aged over 13.

Campaigners said the figures showed that while women were comfortable reporting incidents to the police, commuters needed to do more to look out for each other. Rachel Krys, co-director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said one of the issues was with very busy carriages, such as on the London Underground, adding: “These perpetrators play on that, in that a woman is not really sure whether it’s happened to her.”

She said: “As many times as you hear a good story about someone intervening to help, you hear another one about nothing happening. People don’t interact on the Tube and this does take all of us interacting a little bit better and taking some responsibility for each other.”

She said the group’s research had showed that most incidents took place during rush hour, when carriages were packed making it more difficult for others to intervene.

“Women are also thinking ‘is this actually assault, what’s actually happening’ – so it’s really hard for a stranger to see what’s happening,” she said.

“The likelihood of them saying something is very low. We could all be looking out for each other a bit more.”

Many of the reported assaults involve men pressing up against or groping a victim, often in a busy carriage. In 2015 Jeremy Corbyn, who at the time was campaigning for the Labour leadership, was criticised for suggesting that women-only carriages could be considered to reduce attacks.

Det Chief Insp Darren Malpas, from the British Transport Police, said: “We have worked hard in recent years to send a clear message to victims that they will be taken seriously and we will investigate offences.”