Women in England and Wales who experience street or cyber-flashing, up-skirting, or other forms of harassment were urged on Monday to report such incidents to the police.
It comes as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published new prosecution guidance on public order offences including a “specific chapter on charges relating to public sexual abuse” to clarify the law around potential offences.
A number of specific offences were highlighted by the prosecutors, such as exposure of genitals with the intention to cause alarm or distress; taking a photo or video under someone’s skirt without their consent to humiliate, alarm, or distress the victim, or gain sexual gratification; sending unsolicited sexual images to strangers in public places via data sharing services such as Bluetooth or Airdrop; or intentionally causing harassment, alarm, or distress by using threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour….