Two sisters have described the “complete violation” of being upskirted during a night out in Manchester but said the men responsible had “chosen the wrong girls” to target.

Georgia, 25 and Alex Scholes, 22, had just left a restaurant in the city’s Spinningfields area when two men followed them very closely up some stairs while filming them.

Actress Georgia, who stars in ITV crime drama The Bay, said “something felt off” when she noticed one of the men holding his phone awkwardly, before realising he was recording.

“The moment I realised what had happened, my heart just sank. It was a complete violation,” she said.

Greater Manchester Police said two men, aged in their 20s and 30s, had been arrested on suspicion of voyeurism following the alleged incident on Deansgate on 19 September.

“Both men have been released on bail pending further enquiries,” the force added.

Georgia said she had confronted the men and told them: “You’ve just recorded us, please can you delete it.

“And at that point I broke down and started crying because I was in utter shock.

“I was in a situation where this bloke got footage up my dress, and he’s gone off with it – I don’t know what he’s going to do with that footage.

“He was shouting all sorts and one of them started running off while the other stayed oddly quite close to me.”

She asked for help from passers-by but said “not one person batted an eyelid”.

Alex also repeatedly asked one of the man to delete the video, and when he started running away, she took off her heels and chased after him.

It was only at that point that a bouncer stepped in and stopped the other man, and both were later arrested.

“If he hadn’t had done that, they would have just got off, and I would have had to live with the fact that all happened,” mother-of-two Georgia continued.

“I’d gone out to town, we got our hair done and our make-up done and I felt good, but that whole feeling just went away.

“When I woke up the next morning, I just felt an overwhelming sense of sadness because I felt like the whole night I had to justify myself.

“When I spoke to the police, the first question that the woman asked me was are you sure he was recording you? It embeds a seed of doubt.

“The message that I want to put out is that telling women to be hyper vigilant on a night out and, you know, be aware of your surroundings and what you drink isn’t a solution, it’s barely a plaster over what is a massive issue.”

Alex said: “They picked the wrong two girls that night.

“We are not going to be belittled, and we will defend ourselves, and we received a whole load of abuse.

“You’re not going to violate me, my sister, or anyone in that manner and think you can get away with it.

“You just feel violated. It’s the complete disrespect. It taints every good emotion that you were feeling before it happened.

“I feel like it is a crime that is so minimalised and normalised, and it is almost like you have to accept what has happened.

“The norm should be calling out perversion and harassment.”

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