Overview
- Esme Rice says she was groped by two men as she alighted an Elizabeth line train at Stratford at about 11pm on June 6 and texted BTP’s 61016 service within two minutes.
- Rice says she did not receive a callback for roughly 13 hours, a delay she and others say underlines fears about how quickly reports are handled.
- The British Transport Police stressed that tackling sexual offending on the railway is a force priority and noted the 61016 text line handles more than a quarter of a million texts a year.
- An appeal has been issued seeking two unidentified men linked to the incident; no arrests have been reported in the coverage provided.
- Rice’s social media post prompted many messages from other women with similar accounts, highlighting wider concerns about passenger safety and the pressure on police resources to investigate sexual offences.