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
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
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He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
A workman saved a seven-year-old boy from a burning car in the aftermath of a deadly crash caused by a suicidal ex-pilot, an inquest has heard.
The schoolboy’s rescue came following the collision on the M6, which killed former RAF man Richard Woods and four others, in October last year.
Last week a coroner ruled that Woods, 40, took his own life by deliberately driving his Skoda the wrong way down the motorway while drunk and hitting a Toyota Yaris head-on.
The driver of the Toyota, Jaroslaw Rossa, 42, was also killed, along with his two sons, Filip, 15, and Dominic, seven, and his partner Jade McEnroe, 33.
Cockermouth Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday that Ms McEnroe’s son was also in the car but survived after workman Gavin Walsh came to his rescue at the scene, which was near Tebay services in Cumbria.
In a statement to the inquest, Mr Walsh said he was a passenger in a transit van travelling to Scotland when he witnessed the crash.
He jumped out of the vehicle and used a jack to smash the rear windscreen of the Toyota and pulled the boy out of the burning vehicle.
Mr Walsh said: “We really did try, I can assure everyone we did our best. We only had minimal time.
“I saved a life that day and I hope never to witness anything like that again.”
He added that he has never stopped thinking about the boy, and said: “I hope we will meet again one day and I will give you a massive hug.”
At the time, the family were returning to Glasgow from a trip to Legoland in Windsor, Berkshire.
The inquest heard that Wood, who was travelling at a speed of at least 65mph, would have been charged with manslaughter had he survived.
Recording conclusions of unlawful killing, Cumbria assistant coroner Margaret Taylor said: “I found that Jaroslaw, Jade, Filip and Dominic died as a consequence of the unlawful acts of another driver.”
The inquest heard how Mr Woods, from Cambridgeshire, had served a distinguished 14-year career in the RAF and was a flight instructor for BAE Systems at the time of his death.
Jade McEnroe. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Dominic and Filip. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
In Ms Taylor’s record of inquest, Mr Woods was said to have been experiencing “a number of stressors in his life” and had a “history of harmful use of alcohol”.
Following the crash, he was found to be nearly four times over the legal drink-drive limit and a two-thirds empty bottle of gin was found in his car.
On the day of his death, concerns had been raised over his behaviour at a work conference near Preston in Lancashire.
Mr Woods failed to return to his seat after lunch and was later spotted driving erratically and swerving across three northbound carriageway lanes on the M6.
After pulling onto the hard shoulder, he then proceeded to U-turn and drove southward on lane three.
Filip, Dominic and Jaroslaw Rossa. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Detective Sergeant Deborah Story, from Cumbria Police, told the inquest that Mr Woods would have been prosecuted on four counts of manslaughter had he lived.
She said hypothetical charges of murder were considered by detectives but not thought appropriate because of a lack of information that Mr Woods knew the family or anything that provided a link between them.
Ms McEnroe’s parents, Marie McEnroe and George McNellis, told the coroner they thought it was “murder”.
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A statement from the mother of Filip and Dominic, and the ex-wife of Mr Rossa, Kamila, was read out at the inquest.
She said Mr Rossa, known as Jarek, was born in Poland where they became a couple and went on to have three boys.
He loved playing computer games and had “lots of friends”, she said, and worked at the Wagamama restaurant in Silverburn, Glasgow.
She said she was “devastated” over the deaths, adding: “Our lives will never be the same.
“I am heartbroken at the passing of my beloved angels Filip and Dominic.”
Marie McEnroe said her daughter, a spa therapist, had been in a relationship with Mr Rossa for about two-and-a-half years.
She said Jade had been a “brilliant mother” to her only child, was “really happy” with Mr Rossa and it was “lovely chaos” when all the boys were playing together.
Ms McEnroe added: “Life changed forever that day”.
Ms Taylor praised the “selfless acts of bravery” from those in the aftermath of the collision, including Mr Walsh, who she said went towards the burning car “without hesitation for his own safety”.
The coroner added: “Without his swift response, Jade’s child would also have perished.”
Addressing the bereaved family members, she said: “Your loss is unimaginable but you have conducted yourself with dignity and I thank you for that. I wish you strength for the future.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
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