When I was in my first year of uni I had come out of a club with my then-boyfriend at around 6 in the morning. Upon leaving a group of around seven men approached and began to circle around us, making us unable to escape. Whilst the other men distracted my ex, one of the males from the group approached me and forced himself upon me, starting to violently push his weight on me and get off with me – grabbing me at the bottom in the moment. I couldn’t get him off of me.
My ex hadn’t the power to help as they had insinuated they would use violence against him if he had tried. It was only when some other people came around the corner that I had the power to escape from this. Bearing in mind this was in broad daylight, on a busy street and I was with someone else, this just shows the extent to which women can be vulnerable in any environment.
Words by Charity Swales