Police urge Berkshire passengers to report sexual harassment on trains

That’s one of the reasons why a local police chief believes train passengers don’t report sexual harassment to officers.

But British Transport Police are trying to change that perception with a week of action encouraging rail-users to let them know about sexual harassment incidents.

Starting Monday, August 2, the action week aims to raise awareness about how people can report sexual harassment and why it is so important to do so.

PC Justin Waite, based at Reading Police Station, said the force needed to “focus the public’s attention towards this [issue].”

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He added: “We're always taking sexual harassment offences seriously, we're always investigating, and we're always looking for suspicious behaviour.

“But I think what we need to do a lot of time in reassure the public, so we're going to have direct patrols, we're going to have engagement with the public next week, just to highlight the issues around sexual harassment, making sure people know what sexual harassment actually is, and ensuring that people understand that we investigate all allegations of this.”

According to PC Waite, sexual harassment can include inappropriate staring, inappropriate comments, inappropriate touching and serious sexual assaults.

But according to the BTP officer, these incidents often go unreported.

He speculated that the reason for this is two-fold.

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“Firstly, people may not think it's that big a deal, how one person reacts to an incident is different to how another person might react”, he said.

“But even if people think it's not that big a deal, I'd still want them to report it to us, we will still try and identify offenders, and that actually might be some that leads us to identify somebody who's offending behaviour is escalating.

“I think the other side of it is that people don't believe we'll take these things seriously. And it's a constant battle for us to get people to understand that we will take these offences seriously.

“It might not be that we can identify who the person is, but we at least want to give it a go, because that one identification of a suspect can lead us to solve and prevent multiple serious offences from happening.”

Six sexual offences were recorded at Reading Police Station in the three months from April to July 2019.

In the same period in 2021, seven sexual offences were recorded.

One way to report a sexual offence on a train is by texting 61016 or by reporting an incident to train staff.

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This is what happened on one occasion for PCSO Helen Littlejohn, who was able to apprehend a sexual offender after they were causing issues on a train coming into Reading (watch the video at the top of the page)

Prosecutions can occur from sexual assaults on train lines.

On Wednesday, July 21, Declan Harkin was fined £480 and told to pay compensation of £200 after he admitted to sexually assaulting a woman on a train into Reading.

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Appearing at Reading Magistrates’ Court, the 30-year-old, of Roland Avenue, Coventry, pleaded guilty to inappropriately touching the passenger.

And while not all incidents of inappropriate behaviour -- such as wolf-whistling, for example -- will result in a prosecution, BTP officers are still eager to have such incidents reported to them.

TDC Diane Cooper explained: “A lot of this sexual harassment isn't sexual assault, it may not be enough for a public order offence, but it's completely unwanted and unwarranted.

“Wolf-whistling and things like that, if we know about that sort of stuff we can build up pictures of these people -- are using the trains regularly because we don't really want them on there.

“We can target those trains, even if it's targeting people, speaking to them, making sure that they know that we know they've done these sorts of things, keeping an eye on people.

An actor (left) plays a witness reporting an incident of sexual harassment to PCSO Littlejohn (right)

“It builds up that picture. And if we can intervene earlier, without any prosecutions, and that's in everybody's interest as well.

“Some people are ignorant. I don't think there's an excuse for that in this day and age, at all. If you can talk to them, point out what they're doing, maybe that will be enough rather than going through the courts.

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Targeted train patrols are on the agenda for BTP’s week of action with officers planning to “reassure the public” with uniformed patrols through carriages.

Other planned initiatives include making use of plain-clothes police officers and community engagement.

TDC Cooper added: “I’d encourage everybody to report anything, however minor. If you're not sure whether to report you're not just going to speak to us, a quick phone call, we can maybe alleviate your fears or talk you through what will happen or what won't happen.

“We don't want to promise the world. I think you have to manage people's expectations of what we can realistically do, but what we can offer as well.

“So, just come and have a chat with us, and we're on the station as well if you're coming through Reading or Paddington or any of the big stations, so it's even easier to come and find us.”