Police shocked a woman when they informed her that the case will be dropped owing to a lack of evidence after she snapped a photo of a youngster who had touched her inappropriately at a bus stop.
Only until the 25-year-old victim sent her photos of the marked groper to her local newspaper did the police renew the case.
When a reporter called Derbyshire Police, police made a public plea, and Daniel Oakes was apprehended a few days later.
The 19-year-old was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison after entering a guilty plea to a charge of sexual assault.
“I believed he would have been clearly traceable,” the victim added, referring to the ankle tag.
I’m glad he was found guilty, but getting to this point shouldn’t have required outside help.
The woman said that the reaction from police and a security officer at Derby bus station, who had threatened to remove her after she reported the sex assault, had left her feeling “isolated and alone.”
She was instructed to “stop being so juvenile” and board her bus.
“I suffered a major lack of assistance and support from not just the police, but also the security employees at the bus station, who handled with the problem extremely badly,” the victim said. I was regarded as the crazy one, she continued. I requested assistance but received none.
On October 6, Oakes received a sentence for the incident at Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court. For the next seven years, Oakes must additionally register as a sex offender.
The woman told Derbyshire Live that he had approached her as she was waiting for a bus in the open while wearing an ankle tag, indicating that he was a recent offender. She was attacked by the adolescent in a matter of seconds.
She went to report the assault right away but was ignored by security. As a result, she went back and confronted her attacker and ended up fighting with Oakes.
Security approached me at that point and threatened to kick me out of the building for acting aggressively, she said. It is unclear if Oakes was wearing a location tag, which tracks an offender’s whereabouts constantly, or a curfew tag, which checks whether an offender is where they are supposed to be at certain times of the day.
A “full and proportional” investigation, according to Derbyshire Police, had been conducted, but “no culprit was able to be identified,” necessitating the “filing” of the case.
The photographs needed to be reviewed by a sergeant to see if they were of high enough quality to allow for an identification to be made, according to police, who subsequently said that even though they had been designated for submission. After that, a public appeal was made, and Oakes was taken into custody.
The police said, “We regret that the quality of care this victim got did not satisfy her expectations or ours.”
The bus stop is managed by Derby City Council, who stated: “We are aware of the event.”