Police back an end to ‘shocking’ gender-based violence in Shetland
Police Scotland has thrown its suppor t behind attempts to end gender-based violence in Shetland after a local teenager’s project sharing accounts of abuse.
Rhea used an anonymous social media app to ask how young people had been affected by sexual harassment in the Isles with a post on Shetland R ape Crisis’s Facebook page sharing 66 such stories.
While stories came from all genders across Shetland, the vast majorit y of accounts in the #Wistoo project detailed incidents against young women and girls as young as eight years old.
Police Scotland is now working with partners Shetland Rape Crisis and Shetland Women’s Aid, asking people to be vigilant and to report offenders to help prevent such cases.
Inspector Martyn Brill said: “Reading those accounts was shocking in terms of the extent of sexual offending against women and other young, vulnerable people of other gender sin our community and the seriousness of this unre - ported criminality happening across Shetland.”
Rh ea is a volunteer with Shetland Rape Crisis’s young activists group. The 16-yearold said: “I would like to thank everyone who shared their story with me.”