‘You f***ing weirdo’: Woman confronts man secretly taking pictures of her legs on street
‘I am just angry because I should be able to leave my house and walk along the streets without something like that happening to me,’ Ollie O’Neill says
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Your support makes all the difference.A young woman has voiced outrage after discovering a man on the street was taking numerous photos of her legs without asking her permission.
Ollie O’Neill confronted the man after another woman, unknown to her, approached her in Chinatown in central London to tell her he had been photographing her.
The 24-year-old, who is a civil servant, said he had taken at least 20 photos of her and she has been left “really shaken up” by the incident.
“Why are you taking photos of my legs? I want to know. Don’t f***king take photos of me in public you f***ing weirdo,” Ms O’Neill can be heard saying to a grey-haired man in a video posted on her Twitter account.
“I am a professor at the university in Oslo. I am looking for fashion,” the man replies.
“I’m wearing tights. What fashion? Delete the f***ing photo,” she hits back at him.
He replies: “No … You should be proud!”
The man then finally agrees to delete the photos and shows her the various images of her legs which he has captured, adding: “These are your legs.”
The bystander who alerted her to the fact the man was taking photos then chips in to tell him he should not photograph her, but he calls her a “silly girl” before aggressively yelling at her.
“I dread to think of all the other women you have taken a f***ing photo of,” Ms O’Neill says to him. “You are on your own phone taking photos of women’s legs. That is not professional photography.”
Ms O’Neill told The Independent the man captured photos of her legs from behind and some images of her walking.
She said the incident happened outside of a branch of HSBC at around 5.30pm on Monday and the bystander had told an employee from the bank to keep an eye out for him in future - adding he had been “very loud” and “physically intimidating” towards the onlooker.
She said: “I saw him delete one [image] but I would say there were lots still on the phone. I decided to put the incident online because I am used to coming away from these interactions carrying something with me – whether it is resentment or fear – and I thought in this instance, he can carry something with him too and I will show everyone who he is.
“Yesterday I was shaken. Now I am just angry because I should be able to leave my house and walk along the streets without something like that happening to me. It is exhausting that something like this happens.”
Ms O’Neill first tweeted about the saga on Monday afternoon and called for the Metropolitan Police to help her.
She tweeted: “I’m really shaken up. A lovely woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I knew this man, and informed me he had been taking photos of my legs. He had at least 20. I only saw him delete one. This was 17:30, HSBC in Chinatown. @metpoliceuk is there anything that can be done?”
Ms O’Neill added: “Please RT so people know his face. I’m sick and f***ing tired of existing this way. The woman was so lovely and kind and gave me a hug and let the staff in the store know to look out for him. I’m sick of women having to look out for each other this way.”
Upskirting – the act of taking covert photos or videos under n woman’s skirt without their permission – was already illegal in Scotland but only became a criminal offence in England and Wales in April.
The crime is now liable to punished by up to two years in custody under the Voyeurism Act and those found guilty can be placed on the sex offenders register in the most serious cases.
New figures released last week showed four men have been convicted of upskirting since the practice was criminalised.