Undercover reporter exposes reality of harassment for women on nights out

Aisling Keenan

The clips of undercover reporter Ellie Flynn are going viral once again for the shocking things they contain

The documentary, which originally aired on Channel 4, has been circulating again this week on social media, with one commenter saying: “This should be compulsory viewing for kids in school, young boys need to realise they are capable of changing this in their lifetimes if they learn to respect women and young girls”.

Flynn wrote in The Sun that she went “undercover in a bid to expose the grim reality women face on nights out”. She continued, saying: “Across one weekend I go on two nights out in Liverpool and London, acting drunk and separated from my friends. In both cities, the results are shocking.”

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Her first experience of harassment happened in Liverpool’s busiest nightlife area, in the early hours of the morning. Acting drunk, a man comes over to her first asking how she is and then “where I’m going” and then suggests they go to a bar or a hotel.

Flynn says of the incident: “I barely respond, slurring occasionally that I’m going to find my friends, or that I’m fine on my own. I get up to start making my way back to my hotel, stopping and starting and changing directions a few times to see if this shakes him off. Nothing seems to deter him – and despite me repeatedly telling him I’m fine on my own, less than 10 minutes after approaching me he follows me into my hotel room.”

Because she’s being monitored and secretly filmed, she then confronts the man – something most of us don’t feel safe enough to do.

I feel physically sick watching this… Sending love to every woman triggered right now ?#C4SexualHarassment

— Maya Simone ? (@mayasphere) December 12, 2022

“At no point have I given this man any invitation, or any suggestion that I want him to come home with me. I repeatedly told him I was fine on my own and that I didn’t need any help, yet here he is – claiming “we came together”,” says Flynn.

“My experience was harrowing, but I know it was not isolated. An exclusive YouGov survey for Channel 4 found that 1 in 4 women in the UK surveyed have been followed on a night out, 82 per cent are conscious of the threat of predatory behaviour from men when walking alone in the dark, and 1 in 4 women surveyed had been raped or sexually assaulted on a night out. In fact, this incident is just the first of multiple I experience across two nights out,” she writes.

The full documentary is available to watch on Channel 4 here.