Blind woman repeatedly groped by sex pests pretending to help her as one gloated ‘you can grab her, she can’t see you’
A VISUALLY-IMPAIRED woman was repeatedly groped by sex pests pretending to help her as one gloated: "You can grab her, she can't see you."
Angharad Paget-Jones, 27, says gropers left her "feeling scared" while she was out with her guide dog Tudor.
The woman, from Port Talbot, South Wales, has revealed how sex attackers grabbed her while posing as Good Samaritans.
Ms Paget-Jones says she has been grabbed in public "multiple times".
In one incident she recalls hearing a group of boys saying "you could just grab her, she can't see you anyway" - which led her to divert into a nearby shop for safety.
ONS figures from 2018 showed disabled women are twice as likely to experience sexual assault than non-disabled women.
'BETTER EDUCATION'
Ms Paget-Jones is now calling for better education about how people with disabilities are targeted and better support for those who do report issues.
She says: "Men have offered to guide me and they've grabbed the opposite arm and groped me at the same time.
"It's definitely on purpose because you don't squeeze accidentally."
The 27-year-old said there have been times when she reported an attack, but was not taken seriously.
She said: "I reported an incident to a security officer in a well-known train station in London and he just told me my dress shouldn't have been so low cut."
Ms Paget-Jones added: "Disabled women aren't valued. We're just seen as vulnerable, but we're not. It's society that makes us vulnerable."
She got involved with the #JustAskDontGrab hashtag on social media to raise awareness and encourage those with disabilities to come forward if they need help.
She said the response had been positive, however "you always get bad with good" and "some men have taken offence";.
One man told her: "If you don't want help, we'll just let you die."
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Charlotte Archibald, from Welsh Women's Aid, said: "We found that women in Wales with a disability are more likely to experience more frequent sexual harassment than non-disabled women.
"I think it's important that we understand that no woman experiences sexual harassment in the same way and that these experiences are often intertwined with other forms of abuse and discrimination."
She added that listening to the voices of disabled women in Wales and hear about their experiences is key to prevent attacks from happening and to improve safety for women.
HOW YOU CAN GET HELP:
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
- Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – [email protected].
Women’s Aid provides a . from 10am to noon.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.