Public Efforts Towards Headingley Alleyway Assaults

An alleyway in Headingley situated next to the Emerald stadium began receiving mass attention when a Twitter user warned individuals to avoid the path after she had been sexually assaulted there. 

In the victim’s tweet, she explained that she was walking through the alleyway when a “group of boys grabbed and pushed [her] to the floor and took off [her] joggers”.

Fortunately, she was able to escape. However, her assault shone a light on the longstanding unsafe nature of the alleyway and its notoriety for violent attacks and sexual assaults.

Thus, a petition was created by Bethany Welsh, a post grad Leeds Beckett student, advocating the necessity for safety measures to be implemented which has gained momentum with almost 10,000 signatures.

Bethany spoke to Her Campus expressing her frustration over these incidents: “I couldn’t believe that it was happening to be honest. I have heard and seen a lot of cases.”

She explained that no actions have been taken by the authorities despite a history of sexual assaults in the alleyway. After reading the tweet mentioned earlier, she thought “enough is enough” and proceeded to draw up the petition.

As well as the petition, a group was set up in order to tackle the problem head on. ‘Reclaiming Headingley Stadium Alleyway’ on Facebook launched their campaign and planned a protest which took place on the 30th October.

Rhiannon, one of the members who helped to organise the protest, described that she felt that it was like “a breaking point” seeing the post on social media.

Rhiannon explained her frustration, and her reasons for being so active in the organisation of the protest by saying, “…we still have this problem where, predominantly women, are having to change their routine because they can’t walk home through certain areas. They have to be the ones looking out for themselves and it just really, really angers me.”

When asked about the protest, especially in terms of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, she discussed the importance of being proactive, even in times of difficulty. “I (Rhiannon) understand that COVID is an incredibly important thing… but I hate this attitude, that a lot of people have, that we can’t deal with other issues whilst COVID is going, and I don’t think that’s true.”

After the protest, the ‘Reclaiming The Headingley Stadium Alleyway’ group also held a vigil in which they lit 466 tea lights along the alleyway. Each tea light was lit to represent a report offence (either violent or sexual) from August 2020.

Image courtesy of @reclaimheadingleystadiumalleway

When asked about the vigil, Rhiannon explained, “One of our campaigners George came up with the idea. It’s quite hard to comprehend such a large number in your head… so we wanted to have something that was more hands on but quiet and engaging.”

Since the protest took place, the team at ‘Reclaiming The Headingley Stadium Alleyway’ have been invited to meetings with local councillors and MPs to discuss future help and potential solutions. Rhiannon did explain that there is no immediate solution to this issue and that discussions are still ongoing.

Looking towards the future, the ‘Reclaiming’ group have plans to work on other problem areas across Leeds, starting in Leeds North West, mapping out and highlighting areas that the police and local authorities may not necessarily be aware of.

Additionally, Fresh2Death has teamed up with True Security Solutions to patrol the alleyway every day of the week from 6pm to 11pm as a temporary solution. They have set up a GoFundMe page for donations to cover the wages of the security team members.

• assault
• awareness
• Leeds
• Petition
• protest
• security
• students