See it, say it, not sorted. I was let down when I reported my train sexual assault

BTP launched its now very familiar public safety slogan a decade ago. The phrase - See it. Say it. Sorted - is broadcast over public address systems in stations and on trains, and features prominently on posters across the rail network. Recent awareness campaigns specifically name-check pressing, touching, staring and upskirting as forms of sexual harassment that are not tolerated on public transport - and promise action. But Esme says that, based on her experience, it doesn't feel like the BTP is able to respond quickly enough to really protect people when they report an incident - or deter unwanted behaviour. "This wasn't the first time I felt like I had received a poor response after reporting an incident to the BTP," she says. Esme says she was also sexually harrassed two years previously, while travelling with a friend on a Jubilee Line train, at 6pm one day in March. "I noticed a man standing close to me, touching himself," she says. "I moved away, but then looked down and realised that he had moved closer again and was masturbating against me. "I remember the shock - I shouted at him, I took pictures, I called him out loudly, so everyone on that packed train could hear. No-one stepped in." Esme says her friend moved her down the carriage, and when they reached Stratford they went straight to police who were stationed on the platform. She gave them a statement, she says, which was written up the next day, and BTP found the man on CCTV. …