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.”
A man has been remanded into custody charged with child cruelty offences after allegedly lacing sweets with sedatives.
Jon Ruben, 76, of Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, appeared at Leicester Magistrates’ Court on Saturday after youngsters fell ill at a summer camp in Stathern, Leicestershire.
He has been charged with three counts of wilfully assaulting, ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning or exposing children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to health.
The charges relate to three boys at the camp between 25-29 July.
The scene in Stathern, Leicestershire. Pic: PA
Ruben spoke only to confirm his name, age and address.
Police received a report of children feeling unwell at a camp being held at Stathern Lodge, near Melton in Leicestershire, last Sunday.
Officers said paramedics attended the scene and eight boys – aged between eight and 11 – were taken to hospital as a precaution, as was an adult. They have since been discharged.
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Police said the “owners and operators of Stathern Lodge are independent from those people who use or hire the lodge and are not connected to the incident”.
Leicestershire Police has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, after officers initially reported the incident as having happened on Monday, only to later amend it to Sunday.
It is still unclear when officers responded and whether that is why the watchdog referral has been made.
Ruben will next appear at Leicester Crown Court on 29 August.
A bishop who interrupted a church concert in his dressing gown – and told singers to “leave his house” – has formally apologised to the choir.
Jonathan Baker was filmed standing barefoot at a microphone as he criticised performers for making a “terrible racket” at St Andrew’s Church in central London.
Addressing the City Academy Voices choir directly, the bishop of Fulham said: “I write to apologise for the distress and offence I caused in bringing the concert to a premature end.
“This should not have happened … I also apologise for remarks which were made in haste, and which have understandably caused hurt and distress.”
The bishop, in his dressing gown, gave the choir a dressing down
Mr Baker had demanded for the performance to stop because it was 10pm – and says he didn’t realise the choir had booked the church until 11pm.
In the statement obtained by Sky News, he added: “I have lived here on site at St Andrew’s for 10 years, for much of which City Academy has rehearsed and performed here.
“You have been, and continue to be, welcome – and I hope that you will be able to continue the relationship with us.
“I can give you every assurance that the events of Friday evening will not recur, and I apologise again to performers (especially those unable to perform at the end of the evening) and the audience alike.”
The choir performed their last song
The choir was performing to a 300-strong audience in Holborn when the lights were suddenly turned off, with Mr Baker declaring the concert was “over”.
A church employee then asked the crowd to leave quietly and for the musicians to step down from the stage, attracting boos from the audience.
The choir went on to perform one last song, an A cappella version of ABBA’s Dancing Queen, before bringing their show to a close.
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Jonathan Baker has apologised
One member of the audience, who was attending with his 10-year-old daughter, told Sky News he initially thought the interruption was a staged joke.
Benedict Collins had told Sky News: “This work deserves respect, not to be disparaged as a ‘terrible racket’. The people here had put their heart and soul into it.
“The bishop cut them off in midstream, preventing soloists who had worked their hardest from singing – and preventing the audience, which included people of all ages, from enjoying it to the end.”
The choir told Sky News it was “upsetting” that they were unable to finish their show as planned, but “hold no hard feelings and wish the bishop well”.
A spokesperson added: “If anyone is thinking of joining one of our choirs, the City Academy Voices rehearse on Mondays in central London. Dressing gowns optional.”
The Online Safety Act is putting free speech at risk and needs significant adjustments, Elon Musk’s social network X has warned.
New rules that came into force last week require platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X – as well as sites hosting pornography – to bring in measures to prove that someone using them is over the age of 18.
The Online Safety Act requires sites to protect children and to remove illegal content, but critics have said that the rules have been implemented too broadly, resulting in the censorship of legal content.
X has warned the act’s laudable intentions were “at risk of being overshadowed by the breadth of its regulatory reach”.
It said: “When lawmakers approved these measures, they made a conscientious decision to increase censorship in the name of ‘online safety’.
“It is fair to ask if UK citizens were equally aware of the trade-off being made.”
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What are the new online rules?
X claims the timetable for platforms to meet mandatory measures had been unnecessarily tight – and despite complying, sites still faced threats of enforcement and fines, “encouraging over-censorship”.
“A balanced approach is the only way to protect individual liberties, encourage innovation and safeguard children. It’s safe to say that significant changes must take place to achieve these objectives in the UK,” it said.
A UK government spokesperson said it is “demonstrably false” that the Online Safety Act compromises free speech.
“As well as legal duties to keep children safe, the very same law places clear and unequivocal duties on platforms to protect freedom of expression,” they added.
Users have complained about age checks that require personal data to be uploaded to access sites that show pornography, and 468,000 people have already signed a petition asking for the new law to be repealed.
In response to the petition, the government said it had “no plans” to reverse the Online Safety Act.
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Why do people want to repeal the Online Safety Act?
Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage likened the new rules to “state suppression of genuine free speech” and said his party would ditch the regulations.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said on Tuesday that those who wanted to overturn the act were “on the side of predators” – to which Mr Farage demanded an apology, calling Mr Kyle’s comments “absolutely disgusting”.
Regulator Ofcom said on Thursday it had launched an investigation into how four companies – that collectively run 34 pornography sites – are complying with new age-check requirements.
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These companies – 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd – run dozens of sites, and collectively have more than nine million unique monthly UK visitors, the internet watchdog said.
The regulator said it prioritised the companies based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operated and their user numbers.
It adds to the 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, as well as an unnamed online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, and two adult websites.
Ofcom said it expects to make further enforcement announcements in the coming months.
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