A 19-year-old woman is the latest high-profile case of catcalling. According to theEvening Standard, Pagan Lilley Motlagh-Phillips says she and her 18-year-old brother were walking down a London street on June 6 when two men on a moped approached and the driver shouted at her, “Are you all right, darling?”
Motlagh-Phillips says that she ignored the men, opting not to respond, but her silence further angered the driver, and according to her, he demanded a response. Her brother told the fellow to leave them alone, which made the driver threaten to run her and her brother over. Motlagh-Phillips said the man then drove down the road only to come back toward them. She pushed her brother out of the way, was hit by the bike, and was left unconscious after impact. The driver advanced in her direction and she says he then reversed over her. “This man took a moped and ran me over because I didn’t entertain his advances. I didn’t swear, I wasn’t abusive, but he ran me over in broad daylight,” she told BuzzFeed News. Motlagh-Phillips, who wound up at a nearby hospital with internal bruising, needed crutches after the incident.
How this young woman was treated is enough to make anyone’s blood boil, but what was more devastating was the lack of support Motlagh-Phillips said she received from the authorities. “I sent the screen shots to the police officer who was dealing with my case it took them a 6 weeks to arrest him,” she tweeted. “They released him within 2 hours … When I asked why do you know what they said? He has no previous convictions & theres no messages on his phone to indicate he ran someone over … Wait it gets better. I said shocked ‘does he have an alibi?’ You know what they said to me ‘No, He doesn’t remember where he was.‘”
According to BuzzFeed, a 21-year-old male was arrested on June 30 and released by the police, which on Aug. 4, tweeted out a call for witnesses of the incident. But according to Motlagh-Phillips, that same day she received an email from the police to let her know that the department would not be investigating further. “All possible investigative leads have been explored and the investigation has concluded, but should any additional information come to light which will help to identify the suspects, this will be reviewed by the investigating team,” the police department said in a statement. Motlagh-Phillips says one of the higher-up officers told her, “Violent muggings and stabbings had to be prioritized.”
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