‘I’m too scared to put the bins out at night’: Students living in fear after Fallowfield rape

The horrific rape of a female student after a night out this Saturday has left students shaken. 

The 19-year-old girl was dragged into an alleyway between Filey and Whitby Road in Fallowfield after being approached on Ladybarn Lane.

The attacker is still on the loose, but police have stepped up patrols – telling students to pre-book taxis and to not walk home alone while detectives are looking into the sickening attack.

Now, terrified students have told The Tab that they are worried to walk home, even after a day at uni – and some have been left outraged at the police’s response.

Whitby Road, near the scene of the incident

A traumatized second year who lives near where the horrific event took place is angry at the police. She said: “It seems a bit ridiculous for the police to suggest that women shouldn’t go anywhere alone at night.

“What if I went to the cinema with a girlfriend who got off the bus somewhere else as they didn’t live with me?

“I shouldn’t feel so terrified to walk five minutes down the road from the bus stop to get home.

“It seems a bit ridiculous to call a taxi and stand around waiting for one for a two minute journey. Guys face risks of being beaten up or mugged but girls face this too and of rape on top of that. We shouldn’t have to be living in constant fear.

“I’m  scared of going anywhere on my own even in the day but even more so when it’s dark.

“It upsets and angers me that I constantly have to walk around in fear that someone could attack me.”

Others are equally enraged at the police’s response saying it was unhelpful, one third year tells us: “”I really don’t think police will do much.

“I won’t be walking home alone any more- that’s for sure. I might have to spend more money on using taxis instead of the bus to get home at night.”

Another petrified student feels that the event has left her changing her day-to-day routine: “It put’s restrictions on what I would normally do. I’m already avoiding visiting friends late at night unless someone can walk me home.

“I’m too scared to put the bins out at night, they go in the same alleyway that the poor girl was dragged into.”

A house just a few doors down from the alley off Filey has already put plans in place for when they return from reading week: “We’re going to make sure that no one is ever left alone in the future, so this cannot happen to any of us.

“We’ll always walk home with a friend now, and carry rape alarms and pepper spray at all times.”

With winter coming and the clocks going back, a third year worries more about her own personal safety: “With sunset getting earlier and earlier us women are going to start worrying about our safety when coming back from uni.

“We are made yet again made to feel afraid to function normally at night time, and it’s disgusting.”

And it isn’t just girls that have been left shocked by the event, a third year Politics student tells us that it has effected him, too:

“This is an extremely scary thing that has happened. It’s horrible to know that people are walking around where we live doing that.

“We all need to be really careful, men and women.”

A fourth year medic said: “I would always be sure to walk girls home if they were going to be alone in Fallowfield.

“I’d always get in a cab over a bus late at night to be safe.”

Manchester’s Women’s officer Jess Lishak has been speaking out about the attack on Facebook too.

Officers have been supporting the victim after the “harrowing” attack.

Police are appealing for information from anybody who might have seen the man, described as slim with very short hair, clean-shaven and wearing baggy blue or grey jeans along with a long-sleeved top.