A stranger assaulted Hannah on a tram. She may never have reported him if not for this

Hannah didn’t pay much attention to the man in her train carriage at first.

She could see him pacing out of the corner of her eye, and now and then he would direct a vulgar comment her way – but this was not overly unusual on Melbourne’s public transport. Plus, it was the middle of the day and plenty of people were around.

But as his behaviour became more erratic, Hannah, whose name has been changed for privacy reasons, decided to get off and switch to a tram for the rest of her trip to work.

“He got on the tram as well, and I wasn’t aware,” she said.

“He came up from behind and grabbed me … He grabbed my behind and then across my waist and down the front of my legs … It caught me off guard to the point where other people were probably in shock as well.”

Though the tram was relatively full, Hannah said no one intervened.

“I just got off and legged it,” she recalled.

Later that night, Hannah reported the incident using a dedicated text line set up by Victoria Police to allow commuters to flag antisocial behaviour and sexual offending on public transport.

The process involves texting “STOPIT” to 0499 455 455, which triggers a response containing a link to a form, where a report can be filed.

Hannah said she would have been unlikely to go to a police station to report the incident, but texting felt less confronting.

According to police, she is not alone.

Superintendent Mark Zervaas said STOPIT was most popular among women aged 16 to 34, many of whom said they would not have otherwise rung Triple Zero or gone to a police station.

He said about 60 per cent of reports came from victims, and the rest from bystanders. The most common time reported offences occurred was between 3pm and 7pm on weekdays.

Trains were the biggest hotspots, making up 67 per cent of reports, despite accounting for less than 40 per cent of total patronage on the state’s public transport network, based on usage data for January this year. Trams accounted for about 22 per cent of reports, and buses about 11 per cent.

Since STOPIT launched in 2022, more than 7000 reports have been made, 15 per cent of which related to unwanted sexual behaviour. Police have conducted more than 500 investigations as a result, and arrested and charged 77 people, including the man who assaulted Hannah, who received a three-month prison sentence for sexual assault, sexual exposure in a public place and upskirting.

Zervaas said STOPIT emerged in 2019, after international student Aiia Maasarwe was raped and killed by 21-year-old Codey Herrmann about 100 metres from the Bundoora tram stop she had just gotten off at.

He said the tragedy of Maasarwe’s murder brought safety concerns around public transport to the fore, and research commissioned soon after revealed the scale of the issue – and the low rates of reporting.

Though he believes many offences are still not being reported, with concerns that culturally and linguistically diverse and LGBTQ people remained particularly hesitant to raise the alarm, Zervaas said STOPIT had provided an important alternative way to notify police.

Victoria Police launched a renewed campaign to encourage use of the service this month, saying the app helped officers find and prosecute offenders, collect intelligence to better direct resources, and advise the government on ways public transport safety could be improved – such as the recent decision to increase the number of roving protective services officers.

However, Monash University professor Nicole Kalms, the founding director of XYX Lab, which leads national and international research on gender and place, said the text-based service fell far short in keeping women and girls safe on public transport.

“I would suspect people see [STOPIT] and think that you text it and someone comes,” she said.

“That’s not the case. There’s no live response … It’s possibly useful for communicating what we do and don’t accept in public transport spaces. But it’s not an effective way to manage quite a serious issue … [or] to make women feel like they can be safe to use public transport.”

Kalms said gender-informed training and harmonisation was needed, as well as improved lighting and signage at stations and design contribution from gender experts.

One year on from her assault, Hannah remains on edge. She said she was glad the app made reporting offences easier, but doubted it would stop them occurring.

“It definitely rocked me more than I thought it would,” the 25-year-old said of the assault. “I stopped taking public transport completely [for] maybe three months. I’m back taking it now, but I’m still vigilant.”

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