At about 11pm on a Saturday night a couple of weeks ago, Esme Rice was on the Elizabeth Line that runs across London. She was travelling home after dinner with friends in Farringdon when two men boarded the busy carriage she was in.

"One of the men tried getting my attention," Esme says, "but I ignored him and waited for my stop."

As the train was pulling into Stratford station, one of the men stroked Esme's back. The second man stood in her way as she tried to get off, and as she hurried past him, Esme says he groped her.

"It all happened so quickly it took a moment for my brain to catch up," she says. "I turned towards them and they were grinning, like it was a joke. Then, they were gone.

"I stood on the platform feeling stunned, afraid and violated."

It was a typical lively Saturday evening with plenty of people around, but no police officers.

Then words Esme had heard many times on trains and at stations suddenly echoed in her head.

"See it. Say it. Sorted."

She texted the British Transport Police (BTP) on 61016, the dedicated line for reporting non-emergency incidents on the rail network. The BTP say they will respond to any crime - from antisocial behaviour to terrorism - within their jurisdiction, which covers more than 10,000 miles of track and roughly 3,000 stations.

An automated reply came back which said Esme's report mattered and that someone would call her "shortly". Then Esme was asked via text message to provide more detail, so she sent descriptions of what had happened, when and where, and waited for their call.

Going public with the assault

But 13 hours after being sexually assaulted on one of the country's busiest transport networks, Esme still had not heard back from anyone. So she decided to post about her experience on social media.

"I recorded myself with my phone, describing the incident, saying how frustrated I was about the lack of response, and included a screenshot of the message I'd received from police," she says.

Esme posted the videos onto her Instagram and TikTok accounts and within an hour, they had been viewed thousands of times. She says there were hundreds of comments, including messages from women who said they understood exactly what she was talking about.

"Not long after that I received a call from the BTP," Esme says. "They told me they had opened an investigation and arranged a time to take my statement."

BTP told the BBC their call that day had not been prompted by Esme's video.

"But I couldn't ignore the timing," she says. "I had reported the assault privately and heard nothing.

"I spoke publicly, and suddenly there was urgency."

A day later, a comment from BTP's official social media account appeared among the hundreds of others alongside Esme's video.

"We're sorry you have been subjected to this awful behaviour on the railway. We treat all reports of sexual assault extremely seriously," the comment read, which was followed by a statement that an investigation had been launched.

Assistant Chief Constable Ian Drummond-Smith then called Esme and acknowledged that a 13-hour delay was far too long.

"He said I should have been called the same evening I reported the incident," says Esme. "I have since been informed there is now an internal investigation into why I was not offered additional support that night."

BTP launched its now very familiar public safety slogan a decade ago. The phrase - See it. Say it. Sorted - is broadcast over public address systems in stations and on trains, and features prominently on posters across the rail network.

Recent awareness campaigns specifically name-check pressing, touching, staring and upskirting as forms of sexual harassment that are not tolerated on public transport - and promise action.

But Esme says that, based on her experience, it doesn't feel like the BTP is able to respond quickly enough to really protect people when they report an incident - or deter unwanted behaviour.

"This wasn't the first time I felt like I had received a poor response after reporting an incident to the BTP," she says.

Esme says she was also sexually harrassed two years previously, while travelling with a friend on a Jubilee Line train, at 6pm one day in March.

"I noticed a man standing close to me, touching himself," she says. "I moved away, but then looked down and realised that he had moved closer again and was masturbating against me.

"I remember the shock - I shouted at him, I took pictures, I called him out loudly, so everyone on that packed train could hear. No-one stepped in."

Esme says her friend moved her down the carriage, and when they reached Stratford they went straight to police who were stationed on the platform.

She gave them a statement, she says, which was written up the next day, and BTP found the man on CCTV.

But a media appeal that asked the public for further information about the person captured on CCTV went out weeks later - not as soon as the footage was found. No identification was made, and by mid-April Esme was told no further action could be taken.

'This could happen to anyone'

The videos Esme posted after being sexually assaulted the second time exploded online. At the time of writing they have had more than 500,000 views, and messages have poured in from people sharing similar experiences.

"Some people get it wrong in the comments - they try blaming me for the fact that it happened, or they leave racist comments about the attackers," she says. "But I want to make it clear - this could happen to anyone."

Figures released at the end of 2025 show reports of sexual offences on the London Underground reached their highest level in five years.

There were 595 sexual offences across all Tube lines in 2024-25, the most since 2019-20 when there were 776 reports.

The data, which was released by TfL in response to a Freedom of Information request, did not include the London Overground, DLR or Elizabeth Line.

At the time TfL said: "Tackling violence against women and girls on public transport has long been a priority for us and our policing partners, and concerted action has been undertaken for a number of years."

Just three days after Esme's assault, on 9 June 2026 a passenger was convicted under new sex-based harassment legislation. He had grabbed a woman's hair and tried to kiss her on a train going into London, describing it as "banter".

He was sentenced to a 12-month community order, 150 hours of unpaid work and a 15-day rehabilitation programme.

The BTP told the BBC that tackling sexual offending on the transport network is a priority as it is "committed to protecting everyone's right to a safe journey".

"The 61016 number receives more than 250,000 texts every year - and this figure continues to rise as confidence grows among passengers in reporting historically under-reported crimes, such as sexual offending," a spokesperson said.

"This isn't misplaced confidence, as we've shown time and time again that we won't stop until we've caught offenders, put them before the courts, and secured justice for victims."

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