Your Piece of the Puzzle campaign launches

British Transport Police has today, Monday 19 February, launched a hard-hitting public awareness campaign in a bid to encourage rail passengers to report sexual harassment in all its forms.

‘Your Piece of the Puzzle’ uses the words of real victims whose information led to a serial sex offender being apprehended on the rail network and convicted of his crimes.

The campaign showcases how vital all reports from the public are and how your information, whether you are a victim or witness, could be the final piece of the puzzle which helps police catch a serial offender.

Brave victims have talked for the first time about how an offender sat next to them on a busy train and pretended to adjust his bag or fall asleep in order to assault them.

The ‘Your Piece of the Puzzle’ campaign tells how:

• The first report came from a woman who bravely photographed the offender when she left the train after being assaulted
• The pivotal report was a text to 61016, that a victim sent while the offender sat next to her. Police then met the train and arrested the offender 32 minutes later.
• While the offender was being arrested, a member of the public saw and came forward to reveal he had also assaulted her.

Their moving accounts of their experiences highlight how, despite experiencing them separately, they weren’t alone and together through reporting to BTP, they ensured a serial sex offender was jailed.

Data released at the end of last year revealed over a third of women have been victim of sexual harassment or sexual offences while commuting by train or tube. The survey, conducted by British Transport Police, also showed that 51% of those who have been victims of sexual offending say that other passengers tried to help them, yet only one in five people who have witnessed sexual harassment have reported it to police.

Temporary Assistant Chief Constable, Paul Furnell, said:

“Every piece of information we receive, whether it’s from a victim themselves or from a bystander can play a part in a wider investigation against an individual. They may have made a sexual remark to you on the train, but the day before they could have sexually assaulted someone else. Your information may be the missing piece which leads us to identify the offender and secure justice for all their victims.

“We know these crimes often go under-reported for various reasons. Victims tell us they doubt themselves, or that they feel that what happened to them was minor and reporting wouldn’t be worthwhile. With this campaign we want to highlight that this couldn’t be further from the truth.

“We have dedicated taskforces and specialist teams to detect and investigate and we leave no stone unturned in bringing offenders to justice, but we need the public to make sure they are reporting all instances to us so that we can identify offenders fast and get them off our network.

“I want to extend my sincerest gratitude to all the victims involved in our campaign, letting us share their words and their stories in a bid to encourage others to do the same.”

How to report

Every report is important. Every report is important See it or experience it, you can report anything that makes you uncomfortable by text 61016, via the Railway Guardian app or by calling 0800 40 50 40.

You can also report past incidents and anonymously report sexual offences at btp.police.uk.

In an emergency, always call 999.