Girls aged three among victims of upskirting – as teenager describes anger at school’s response
Jolene Russell was 15 years old when a boy in her class sat next to her and took photographs under her skirt.
She had become suspicious when the boy started fidgeting with his phone in a lesson, even though they were banned at the school.
Then he made a bizarre request.
Jolene waived her right to anonymity to speak to Sky News
“He put his bag on the floor and put his phone on his bag with his camera facing upwards,” Jolene told Sky News.
“I thought: ‘Why has he done that?'”
“Then he threw his coat on the floor and asked me to bend over and pick it up for him. Instantly there were red flags,” she added, through tears.
Repeatedly we had to stop the interview as Jolene became overwhelmed recounting her experience – it was clearly painful to talk about.
Jolene’s mother Candice-Marie informed the school that her daughter believed she had been a victim of upskirting – the practice of taking a photo or a video underneath someone’s clothing without their knowledge for sexual gratification.
The school confiscated the boy’s phone and discovered photos underneath Jolene’s skirt which he had surreptitiously taken. The images were deleted but the boy was not suspended.
Two years later, Jolene – now aged 18 – and Candice-Marie are still angry the photos were deleted by the school instead of being presented to the police.
Candice-Marie took matters into her own hands and called the police. The teenager was arrested and given a caution.
Hundreds of upskirting offences recorded
At a festival in 2017, a man stuck his hands between Gina Martin’s legs and took a photograph, inadvertently beginning a campaign that would eventually see upskirting made a criminal offence.
Ms Martin reported the act to the police, but she was told the case was closed as there wasn’t legislation that covered the offence.
Outraged, she began a campaign for the law to be changed in England and Wales (it was already an offence in Scotland). In 2019, the Voyeurism (Offences) (No. 2) Bill received Royal Assent and now perpetrators face up to two years in prison.
Gina Martin campaigned for a change in the law after she was upskirted
But four years later, exclusive figures obtained by Sky News show 1,150 upskirting crimes have been recorded since 2019, with 40% of victims being children – some as young as three years old.
This data was revealed after Sky News submitted freedom of information requests to the 43 police forces in England and Wales – 39 responded.
However just 68 people have been convicted of upskirting since 2019, Ministry of Justice figures show.
Outcomes are low across other sexual offences too. Just 3.6% of sexual offences in England and Wales resulted in a charge in 2022/23 – or 2.1% for rape offences.
In response to the upskirting figures, a government spokesperson said: “We are supporting women and girls to feel safer everywhere and that’s why we are encouraged that 60% of offenders convicted of voyeurism in the past year received either a suspended sentence or immediate custody.”
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‘I blamed myself for wearing that dress’
Katie was 21 when she was out with friends for lunch and a man took photos underneath her dress while she paid for parking.
Another woman alerted her to what was happening and Katie confronted the man who showed the photos he had taken, which he had hastily moved into his deleted folder.
Like so many sexual assault victims, Katie found herself questioning her own behaviour.
Katie was 21 when she was upskirted
She told Sky News: “I felt really embarrassed that someone had done that, because I’d dressed up to go out with my friends.
“I know you’re not supposed to blame yourself but you do think: ‘Maybe I wore a dress which was too short’.”
Katie reported the crime to the police but a few months later, they rang to say there was nothing they could do.
The officer, she said, was unsympathetic and cold – the call lasted two minutes at most.
“I didn’t really believe that they had tried to look into it because I’d been told by the receptionist at the shopping centre that there was CCTV all over the car park,” Katie said.
“It’s something which stays in your head for years. I always wondered where did those photos go?”
The impact on victims
While it may be dismissed as a minor offence, the impact on the victims can be long-lasting.
Candice-Marie says her daughter Jolene has become much more distrustful since she was upskirted.
“It’s affected her confidence, it’s affected her judgement of people,” she said.
“She’s quite distrusting of men and boys now.
“If she thinks someone is following her, she’s on the phone to me instantly. As a mum, it’s tough because I want her to be confident.”
Jolene with her mother Candice-Marie
Candice-Marie also believes what happened reflects a worrying attitude among some male teenagers who think they can harass, pressure and assault girls without repercussions.
“There is a culture among young boys and teenagers where they can get away with this kind of thing,” she added.
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It is a concern shared by Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition.
“We see links between those who were investigated for upskirting also having been investigated for other sexual offending,” she told Sky News.
“It’s an issue we should never minimise because it gives men and boys permission to act like this with impunity.
“That’s where we are currently with the criminal justice system, which responds so poorly and charges and prosecutes so few cases of upskirting and other forms of violence against women.”
UK
Home secretary admits illegal immigration numbers still ‘too high’ under Labour – but says Farage can ‘sod off’
The home secretary has admitted the UK’s illegal immigrant numbers are “too high” – but said Nigel Farage can “sod off” after he claimed she sounded like a Reform supporter.
Shabana Mahmood, speaking just after announcing a major policy change on migration, said she was “horrified” by the 27% increase of irregular arrivals in the year to June.
Politics latest: Labour MPs attack asylum plans
Speaking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, the home secretary said: “I acknowledge the numbers are too high, and they’ve gone up, and I want to bring them down.
“I’m impatient to bring those numbers down.”
She refused to “set arbitrary numbers” on how much she wanted to bring illegal migration down to.
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Beth Rigby: The two big problems with Labour’s asylum plan
Earlier on Monday, Ms Mahmood announced a new direction in Labour’s plan to crack down on asylum seekers.
The “restoring order and control” plan includes:
• The removal of more families with children – either voluntarily through cash incentives up to £3,000, or by force;
• Quadrupling the time successful asylum seekers must wait to claim permanent residency in the UK, from five years to 20;
• Removing the legal obligation to provide financial support to asylum seekers, so those with the right to work but choose not to will receive no support;
• Setting up a new appeals body to significantly speed up the time it takes to decide whether to refuse an asylum application;
• Reforming how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is interpreted in immigration cases;
• Banning visas for countries refusing to accept deportees;
• And the establishment of new safe and legal refugee routes.
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Home secretary announces details on asylum reform
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the plan was much like something his party would put forward, and said Ms Mahmood sounded like a Reform supporter.
The home secretary responded with her usual frankness, telling Rigby: “Nigel Farage can sod off. I’m not interested in anything he’s got to say.
“He’s making mischief. So I’m not going to let him live forever in my head.”
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Nigel Farage said the home secretary was sounding like a Reform supporter
She earlier announced refugee status would be temporary, only lasting two and a half years before a review, and they would have to be in the UK for 20 years before getting permanent settled status, instead of the current five years.
Ms Mahmood said Reform wanted to “rip up” indefinite leave to remain altogether, which she called “immoral” and “deeply shameful”.
The home secretary, who is a practising Muslim, was born in Birmingham to her Pakistani parents.
Earlier, in the House of Commons, she said she sees the division that migration and the asylum system are creating across the country. She told MPs she regularly endures racial slurs.
BBC chair Samir Shah has said there is “no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this” – after Donald Trump said he would sue the corporation for between $1bn and $5bn.
It comes after the US president confirmed on Saturday he would be taking legal action against the broadcaster over the editing of his speech on Panorama – despite an apology from the BBC.
Samir Shah said the BBC’s position ‘has not changed’. Pic: Reuters
In an email to staff, Mr Shah said: “There is a lot being written, said and speculated upon about the possibility of legal action, including potential costs or settlements.
“In all this we are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our licence fee payers, the British public.
“I want to be very clear with you – our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.”
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On Saturday, President Trump told reporters legal action would come in the following days.
“We’ll sue them. We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion (£792m) and five billion dollars (£3.79bn), probably sometime next week,” he said.
“We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
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The BBC on Thursday said the edit of Mr Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021 had given the “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.
The broadcaster apologised and said the splicing of the speech was an “error of judgment” but refused to pay financial compensation after the US leader’s lawyers threatened to sue for one billion dollars in damages unless a retraction and apology were published.
Deborah Turness. Pic: Reuters
Tim Davie. Pic: PA
The Panorama scandal prompted the resignations of two of the BBC’s most senior executives – director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.
The broadcaster has said it will not air the Panorama episode Trump: A Second Chance? again, and published a retraction on the show’s webpage on Thursday.
A British man who hacked the X accounts of celebrities in a bid to con people out of Bitcoin, has been ordered to repay £4.1m-worth of the cryptocurrency, prosecutors say.
Joseph James O’Connor, 26, was jailed in the United States for five years in 2023 after he pleaded guilty to charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and extortion.
He was arrested in Spain in 2021 and extradited after the country’s high court ruled the US was best placed to prosecute because the evidence and victims were there.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Monday it had obtained a civil recovery order to seize 42 Bitcoin and other crypto assets linked to the scam, in which O’Connor used hijacked accounts to solicit digital currency and threaten celebrities.
The July 2020 hack compromised accounts of high-profile figures including former US presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
O’Connor and his co-conspirators stole more than $794,000 (£629,000) of cryptocurrency after using the hacked accounts to ask people to send $1,000 in Bitcoin to receive double back.
Prosecutor Adrian Foster said the civil recovery order showed that “even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality”.
The order, which valued O’Connor’s assets at around £4.1m, was made last week, following a freeze placed on the hacker’s property, which prosecutors secured during extradition proceedings.
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A court-appointed trustee will liquidate his assets, the CPS said.
The attack also compromised the X (then Twitter) accounts of other high-profile figures including Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, investor Warren Buffett, and media personality and businesswoman Kim Kardashian.
The hack prompted the social media platform to temporarily freeze some accounts.
X said 130 accounts were targeted, with 45 used to send tweets.
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