A woman who reported being sexually assaulted on the London Underground said police did not respond to her call for 13 hours.
Esme Rice said she was travelling to her home in east London, when two men boarded her Elizabeth line train and assaulted her just before 23:00 BST on 6 June.
She messaged 61016 – a dedicated British Transport Police (BTP) line for discreetly reporting crimes by text – but said she was “disappointed and confused” that no-one called her back until the next day and said the number was the not “safety net” she hoped for.
BTP said the line received more than a quarter of a million texts every year and that tackling sexual offending on the railway was a “force priority”.
BTP has since made an appeal to trace two men they want to speak to about the assault, in which Rice said she was groped.
They are believed to have been among a group of buskers who boarded the train Rice was travelling on and got off at the same time as her at Stratford.
No arrests have been made.
