A mother has called for greater safety measures on Merseyrail trains after her 16-year-old daughter was touched inappropriately and intimidated by an older man on an evening train. Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has promised an investigation into the incident.
Incident on evening train
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said her daughter was travelling home with a friend from Liverpool city centre to Headbolt Lane station last Thursday evening (September 17). She said the girls were approached by an older man who appeared to be drunk after he got on the train at Sandhills Station.
She told the ECHO: "While on the train, my daughter and her friend were approached by an older man who appeared to be drunk. He proceeded to intimidate my daughter and then touched her inappropriately.
"The man and his friend even offered to walk my daughter and her friend home, despite my daughter telling them that she was only 15. She told them that her dad was picking them up, and thankfully the men got off the train at Kirkby. I dread to think what could have happened if they had followed the girls off the train."
Impact on the victim
She said her daughter felt "completely helpless" and claimed that there was "no security presence or staff on the train", adding: "She did not feel that there was anywhere she could safely turn for immediate help."
The worried mum said the incident has had a profound effect on her young daughter. She added: "When my daughter got off the train, she immediately broke down in tears. The incident has had a significant impact on her confidence and sense of safety. She has been too frightened to attend college and is now scared to use the train."
She added that this was not the only incident like this to affect her family, explaining that her three daughters have all reported incidents of intimidating or inappropriate behaviour experienced on the local rail network.
Mayor promises investigation
She added: "This has left me deeply concerned that women and girls may not feel safe using these services, particularly during the evening." She has expressed these concerns in an email to local authorities including Mayor Steve Rotheram. She reported the incident to British Transport Police at the time, who are investigating.
The ECHO put these concerns to the Mayor, who promised to pull the various organisations together to investigate the incident. Mayor Rotheram said: "I am going to speak to the lady who contacted me, because there are a few things that concern me.
"We need to see that if there was nobody on board the train, what the explanation is for that. We have something called a second, safety-critical person on board every train. No train can pull out of a Merseyrail station without the driver and what is now called a train manager, used to be a guard.
"That person works within the carriages and they have to be there at all times. So I don't know what has gone on there, but we will be asking Merseyrail to investigate this and we will be looking at the CCTV that we have on board."
The girl's mum has asked us if we can tighten up any safety requirements that we have, because women who do travel late feel more vulnerable, we know that - so this really genuinely concerns me, because we don't want to turn people off public transport, we want it to be safe for everyone."
He added: "This needs to be properly investigated and we need to find the individual involved, so we are asking British Transport Police, Merseyrail and other authorities to take this very seriously and see if we can locate this individual. We will step up the visibility of our staff to make sure people feel safe. I am the father of two girls, so this is very important to me."
Merseyrail and police response
A spokesperson for Merseyrail said: "We take every report of violence against women and girls extremely seriously. We are working closely with the British Transport Police and will support their investigation in any way we can.
"Everyone has the right to travel safely and confidently on our network, and we do not tolerate harassment, abuse, intimidation or any form of inappropriate behaviour towards passengers.
"Keeping our passengers safe is our highest priority, and we have a number of measures in place across the network to help protect vulnerable passengers and provide reassurance to those travelling with us. These include 24/7 monitored CCTV coverage at all stations and on every train, members of staff on every train, colleagues present at 65 of our 69 stations, well-lit stations, help points at every outer-station and on every train that can be used in an emergency to speak directly to a member of our team.
"We also work closely with British Transport Police, Merseyside Police and Carlisle Support Services as part of a multi-agency approach to keeping our network safe and responding quickly to incidents when they occur.
"We would encourage anyone who experiences or witnesses behaviour that makes them feel unsafe to report it immediately to a member of staff, make use of the help points available across the network, or contact British Transport Police by texting 61016."
A spokesperson for British Transport Police said: "We received a report of a sexual assault on a train at Kirkby at around 9.30pm on Thursday 17 September. Detectives quickly made contact and began an investigation, and continue to update the victim and their family with their progress. Enquiries are ongoing, and anyone who witnessed what happened can text 61016 or calling 0800 40 50 40, quoting reference 736 of 17 September."
