Female student followed on her way home warns others of walking alone at night in Cathays

This week, a young female student has spoken out about being followed home and stalked when walking alone at night in Cathays.

In the Newport Road/Broadway area, Kellie Jones first noticed that she was being followed “by a man in a black people carrier” where he “beeped and waved out the window”. She says she didn’t take much notice of it until she realised he drove past her again twice. She called her friend as she was “genuinely scared at this point”.

As she walked down Newport Road towards Broadway, she noticed the man had turned into a side street where “he pulled over and offered me a lift”. After saying no, “he drove off” and that was the last she saw of him.

Speaking to The Cardiff Tab, Kellie said that “it’s really upsetting to me as I shouldn’t have to fear for my safety whilst walking 15 minutes back to my house”.

She continued to say that “catcalling has become so normal to me now that I wasn’t afraid when I was catcalled initially, only when I realised I was actually being followed”. She added, “it shouldn’t be our responsibility to take such extreme measures to protect ourselves, boys and men need to be educated on why this is so wrong”

Kellie went on to say “the problem needs to be tackled before it’s acted on as it’s disgusting that I’m left fearing for my safety as a result.”

To prevent this from happening again, the police have been notified and the incident has been reported. She believes that “this person is driving around looking for girls who are alone and possibly drunk” in order to “take advantage of [them]”.

This is not the first time an incident of this nature has occurred within Cathays, with similar stories becoming more and more common on the Facebook group ‘Overheard at Cardiff University’.

Since making this incident known to others, Kellie has had “several friend requests from random men with no mutuals” who have seen her post online. She describes this as “very inappropriate due to the nature of the post and completely goes against what I’m trying to say”.

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