Upskirting Why Is This Worrying Trend Not Illegal?

When Gina Martin became a victim of upskirting this summer, her social media post went viral. Now she wants to make sure it’s classified as a criminal offence.

- Lucy Devine

‘That’s my vagina!’ I scream, as I grab the phone from his hand. Within seconds, I have a 6ft man clawing and pushing at me for his phone. I make a run for it. I bolt through the crowd of festival goers and finally, crying, find a policeman and tell him this guy took a picture up my skirt and please, please can he arrest him. Through my tears, he looks at me and simply says: ‘There’s nothing we can do. Those pictures aren’t graphic. If you weren’t wearing underwear, it would be a different story.’

This is the reality of upskirting, a fairly new form of sexual harassment where perpetrators take photos (or videos) of women’s underwear or genitals, up their skirt and without their consent. Worryingly, it’s something that seems to be a casual trend, with friends telling me that they’ve seen guys sharing said pictures via WhatsApp on a regular basis – and yet nothing is being done about it.

A week after my incident, still shocked and scared, I received a call from the police. They were closing the case. They tried to reassure me by telling me they’d deleted the picture – my only evidence. And I can’t believe it took that long – but that, that's where I got angry.