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The campaign against ‘upskirting’

Upskirting victim, Gina Martin told 5live ‘It’s treated like a public nuisance instead of a victim crime’ as she campaigns to have ‘upskirting’ legally recognised as an offence

25 year old Gina Martin was attending the British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park with her sister when she discovered that two men who she did not know had taken a photo up her skirt. After realising what was happening Gina took the man’s phone that contained the photo and ran towards security. Despite the police interviewing her and questioning the owner of the phone, they admitted there was little that they could do. The freelance writer from London is now campaigning to have 'upskirting' - when a photo is taken up someone's skirt without consent - legally recognised as a sexual offence. She had this to say:

“Technically it’s not a sexual offence, so it’s often looked at under a voyeurism lawâ€

She continued:

“It’s treated like a public nuisance instead of a victim crime, and this is a victim crime, this is a distressing upsetting crime and it’s not treated like that because it’s not listed as a sexual offence.â€

The Metropolitan Police says it takes allegations of voyeurism seriously and will investigate them thorougly, but do understand that it can be incredibly invasive and distressing for those that this happens to. The force says that with this case, officers believed the allegation had originally been dealt with in line with the victim's wishes. The case has since been reopened and enquiries are ongoing.

This clip was taken from 5live’s Drive programme on Wednesday 9th August 2017.

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2 minutes

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