Image may contain: Highway, Intersection, Street, Building, City, Town, Urban, Freeway, Light, Traffic Light, Road

Lincolnshire police tell women not to walk alone after sexual assault Lincoln

The warning has sparked debate


Lincolnshire Police have advised that women take care when walking home at night to avoid being assaulted.

This comes after a 19-year-old woman was assaulted in the early hours of Saturday morning. The woman was walking alone and was approached and assaulted by a male.

DS Rachael Sadowski, said: "I would like to ask that individuals, and women especially, are extra cautious in Lincoln at the moment.

"It would be sensible for the time being if women made sure they weren't walking alone during hours of darkness in areas where there aren't a lot of people."

This sparked debate among Lincoln students and residents in the Facebook comments of the post, as many people saw the warning as victim blaming.

One person commented: "You should be ashamed of yourselves for victim blaming and pedalling such a regressive attitude. Put yourselves in the shoes of the poor woman who may well just have been making her way work. You're seriously suggesting we can't go about our daily lives in case it entices someone to assault us? If you really believe that then you're part of the problem."

However, not all people felt that the police deserved to be criticised for their post. Another comment reads: "The criticism of the police here is absolutely unjustified. You are so right, we shouldn't have to amend our behaviour to avoid being assaulted […] this is a reactive post to something that has happened to raise awareness and safety levels."

An additional comment under the post said: "Seeing ladies with headphones in their ears worries me a lot, they can't hear what's around them, so be so easily attacked. Please take care ladies."

Since this being released, Lincolnshire Police have released another statement that additional police patrols will be placed in Lincoln following the report. This is being done whilst they seek to apprehend the suspect.

Under this, a Facebook user commented: "Much better response than telling women not to go anywhere alone."

The suspect is described as a young white male, around or shorter than 5ft 7in in height, and was reported to be wearing blue jeans and a black puffa jacket.

Lincolnshire Police has said to contact them with any information via 101 using the reference incident 86 of 18/01/2020.

Want to write stories like this? Join the team – no experience required! DM us via The Tab Lincoln on Facebook.