Wednesday 21 November 2007


The Edinburgh Feminist Network organised a Reclaim the Night march on 11 October 2007 - some people commented (correctly) that women were more at risk from men they knew and it therfor was not good politics to have a "reclaim the night" march as it might make the "stranger danger" be over focussed on - I argued against this as women modify their behaviour because of their fear of men's violence. Why can we not reclaim the streets or the night. The march put out a really good message that women will not just put up with men's violence. However it looks like women are at risk from men they don't know. This article was in the Evening News on 21st November 2007.


A WOMAN was raped behind the Playhouse Theatre as revellers headed home just yards away.
The 27-year-old victim had left a nightclub when she was befriended by her attacker at a taxi rank outside the Omni Centre.

She walked down Greenside Lane with the man, who then raped her.
The attack took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, as the city was packed with drinkers who had earlier watched Scotland's defeat to Italy in the Euro 2008 decider.
It was the latest sex attack to take place in the Hillside/London Road area following a string of incidents earlier this year.
Police today appealed for witnesses who were in the area around the Playhouse and taxi rank at the time.
The suspect spoke broken English with a foreign accent. He is described as black, 20 to 30 years, 5ft 8in, of medium build, with a goatee beard, and wearing a cream coloured jumper with horizontal stripes and blue jeans.
The victim had left a club at the top of Leith Walk at 2.30am.
A police spokesman said: "This was a serious sexual assault that left the victim in a considerable state of distress.
"We would appeal to anyone who was in the area at the time and noticed the victim and the suspect speaking to get in touch."
Following the match on Saturday, a man also had his jaw broken during a football-related assault in the city centre. It is understood an argument had broken out between him and a woman with an English accent near the Scotsman Lounge on Cockburn Street.
After the exchange of words, she returned with four friends who assaulted the man, leaving him with a broken jaw. After the assault he was taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, before being transferred to St John's.
In September, a teenage girl was indecently assaulted by a 6ft 6in attacker after being dragged into woods off London Road.
The 18-year-old had been waiting for a taxi home at around 2.30am on Leith Street, near the Omni Centre, when a man grabbed her arm. She struggled and her attacker ran off towards London Road. Her attacker spoke with an Eastern European, possibly Polish, accent.
In April, a 17-year-old girl was indecently assaulted by a man after he forced her into his car.
The 17-year-old victim was walking along London Road, when a silver-coloured car pulled up and a man of Turkish appearance jumped out.
And in the early hours of New Year's Day, an acne-scarred attacker indecently assaulted a 28-year-old woman as she walked home from a party. She was pushed against a wall at Sunnybank Terrace, and indecently assaulted before she managed to struggle free.

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