MOSTLY PEACEFUL

A frightened woman recently reached out to me for help. She told me she and her village feel powerless. She lives in a small village where a hotel was closed to the public and used to house asylum seekers, without any warning to the people who live there. Since then, residents report two sexual assaults, teenage girls have been harassed, followed and chased as they get off the school bus, and one man has reportedly been standing at people's windows, taking photos inside their homes and trying to get into houses. A few days ago, she saw him approach a group of teenage girls as they got off the bus, telling them they had to give him "favours". The girls were terrified, so she stepped in and bravely put herself between them and the man. Days later, the same man stood outside her home making "I'm watching you" gestures, then drew his finger across his throat. She did everything right. She reported it. So did her neighbours, with more than 50 calls to the police in half an hour about one incident. But she told me that each time, he's simply taken back to the hotel. Nobody came to check on her after the threat, nobody updated her, and when she rang again she was told he might just need a welfare check. She's even been told to stop talking about it. When she tried to organise a community meeting online, her posts were reported and taken down. When women and girls are frightened in their own village, and the people who speak up are made to feel like the problem, something has gone badly wrong. It is not acceptable. The police, the Home Office and those running the hotel all have a duty to keep this community safe. When residents report the same man again and again, and the answer is to take him back to the hotel and walk away, that duty is not being met. Those in charge must be held to account, and they must be made to answer for every report that was brushed aside. So I've been helping her and her neighbours to take action. I've put together a full pack for them to use: a joint letter for residents to sign to their MP and Police and Crime Commissioner, a formal complaint about the police response, a letter to the school about the girls' safety, a request for a public meeting through their parish council, and forms so every incident is properly recorded. Facts, dates and reference numbers are much harder to ignore than worried phone calls. I'm not naming the village. Yet. This is about getting results for the women and girls living there, not about putting anyone at further risk. If something similar is happening where you live, please don't stay silent. Keep a record, report everything, and reach out. You don't have to do it on your own, and you are NOT powerless.