Drunk men on Shotton train left young woman frightened after hurling sexually explicit abuse at her

British Transport Police are appealing for your help to identify a group of individuals who subjected a 20-year-old woman was to abuse including lewd remarks and gestures.

A group of young ‘men’ who police say were drunk were travelling on a train as it headed for Shotton, one of the men tried to grab the woman’s phone, while the others surrounded the female in the vestibule area where it’s alleged they made the sexually explicit remarks and gestures

Staff on board the service were also targeted for abuse during the incident, which took place at around 9.10pm on Sunday, 3 July.

Investigating officer, PC Harry Thompson from BTP, said:

“The victim, a 20-year-old woman, was alone in the vestibule area when she was surrounded by a group of young men who had clearly been drinking.

“One of the group started making inappropriate remarks and subjected her to sexually explicit gestures, while one of his friends tried snatching her phone from her hand.

“The train guard also had problems with the group, who refused to buy tickets and prevented staff from closing the cab door before leaving the train at Shotton Low Level.

“Clearly the collective behaviour of this group was concerning and entirely unacceptable.

The young victim was left feeling frightened and intimidated by her ordeal, which has naturally caused her some distress.

“Unwanted sexual behaviour of any kind on the rail network will not be tolerated. Fortunately incidents of this nature are rare but, when they do occur, we will do all we can to track down those responsible.”

British transport say they have conducted a number of CCTV enquiries, and officers have isolated images of a group of individuals they would like to speak to.

“As a result of our investigations, I am now in a position to release images of seven young men – all of whom it is understood speak with an Irish accent – we believe may hold vital information about the circumstances of what happened,” said PC Thompson.

“If you recognise any of those pictured, or have any information about the incident, I would urge you to please come forward and talk to us. Your information could prove vital to this investigation.”

Anyone with information about this incident should contact British Transport Police on Freefone 0800 40 50 40 or text 61016 quoting reference 407 of 14/07/2016.

Alternatively, information can be passed to the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.