Woman refused bus travel at 3am for being 20p short on bus fare is raped... What would you have done

[vicisthebest]

I have heard this story a couple of times over the last couple of weeks, and wondered about people's take on it.

Basically back in December a 22 year old woman was going home at 3am on the night bus after a Christmas night out, but only had £4.80 when the fare was £5.00. After asking to be let off the 20p, the driver refused, and nobody else on the bus offered to give her the 20p. She then asked the driver if she could run to the cashpoint which was a few steps from the bus stop, to get the money, to which he refused again, and drove away leaving her.

She rang her mum to come pick her up, but her mum was unfamiliar with the one-way system in the city so agreed to meet her a few streets away in a place that she could get to more easily.

In almost the exact place her mum was due to meet her, she was dragged into a park and beaten and raped by a 19 year old scumbag, who, as he was leaving the park, ran into the girl's mother with a police officer that she had asked for help from, worried as her daughter hadn't shown up. He then pretended to play the hero who had found the girl beaten and raped in the park.

He has now been found guilty of the crime and has been told he will face a lengthy prison sentence, while it seems that she has really got her life back on track, continued with her law course at uni and refused to let it ruin her life, so good for her.

I bet the bus driver feels some guilt. I know that the fare was £5, not £4.80, and he was probably running to a schedule and might not have had time to wait for her, but I bet he still feels awful.

My question is - if you were one of those people who was sat there on the bus as this girl pleaded to be let on the bus, or to run and get some money, what would you have done?

I can honestly say that wouldn't have hesitated to give someone 20p, if I had it. I can't imagine the guilt I would be feeling now if I had heard what happened to that girl and I had just sat there, acting like I hadn't heard what was going on (as many people on public transport seem to do).

Asked about reports that other passengers failed to give the victim the 20p she needed, the officer said: "It's difficult to speak for those people.
"We each make our own judgments and the people on that bus made their judgments that night.
"Knowing what they know now, they may wish they had given 20p."

Full story here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...s-because-she-was-20p-short-of-the-fare.html#

 

[vicisthebest]

I would have given her the 20p, especially at that time of night. The driver was a joke though, he should have let her on or allowed her to go get more money if the cashpoint was so close.

Doesn't mean any of them, driver included, are at fault for the rape though.

Of course not. But it's strange to have it brought home in such a big way, that small and seemingly insignificant decisions that you make every day can have such a massive effect on someone else's whole life - reminds me (not meaning to be flippant here) of the film Sliding Doors, where catching or not catching the tube sent her life in completely different directions. If just one of those people on that bus that night had given her that 20p, this whole thing would have been avoided.

Of course, it was probably just wrong place, wrong time - if he hadn't raped her, he might have done it to someone else, so their life has been changed by the decision of those people on the bus too.

Strange to think about.

 

[vicisthebest]

Not really the bus driver's fault. I think the passengers were a bit tight not giving her 20p - I've certainly given change to people who've realised they're slightly short of cash on the bus. But I don't think it's fair to link the bus driver with what happened later.

I don't blame him either, but:

Nottingham Crown Court was told that CCTV footage showed the student pleading with the driver for eight minutes before he turned her away

I would argue that if he had time to talk to her for that long, he had time to let her run to the cash point.

 

[vicisthebest]

I remember catching the bus home from school one time, it was a school bus but one you had to pay for, and the fare was 60p. As a result, because lots of people paid with £1 coins, the driver was often short of 20p pieces, particularly if you were further back in the queue. The solution (I think anyway, but maybe it just makes too much sense) would be to make sure that bus had some extra 20ps. Instead, the drivers would constantly tut, sigh, make people stand to the side while others got on and he got some change, and they sometimes were downright rude.

One day I got on with only a £5 note to pay with. The guy just looked at me, rolled his eyes, said, "I haven't the change for that" and told me to get off.

I had to ring my dad to come get me, we didn't even go home, we went straight to the bus depot where my dad bawled at them for the way he'd treated me, apparently if people don't have the fare or the driver doesn't have the change they're supposed to get you to fill out a form (like at a petrol station if you've forgotten your wallet) and you can pay later or have a bill sent.

I got £15 compensation

In fact - are those forms still being used on buses? Why didn't the driver give her one?

 

[vicisthebest]

Is this story actually true. I want a link to the newspaper article. Sounds like it's made up.

Did you read the OP? There's a link to the article from the Daily Telegraph at the bottom of it. You will also find it on Sky News' website.

 

[vicisthebest]

yes of course you would have all given her the 20p

NO YOU WOULDNT HAVE. be honest - you see this everyday on the bus at various times of the day - nobody does anything apart from say stupid man/stupid women / trying to get on the bus for less.

its unfortunate what happened to this individual but the amount of bs in this thread is astronomical.

If the woman had got on, the driver said she didn't have enough, and she'd got off again, I wouldn't have batted an eyelid.

But sitting on the bus while she pleaded with the driver for nearly 10 minutes? I think I would have handed over the 20p at that stage.

 

[vicisthebest]

So be honest: if you admit you wouldn't have given her the 20p, nobody's going to think you're happy to turf women off buses to be raped.

I am being honest. I would have given her the 20p.

 

[vicisthebest]

Not in my company (one of the big 3 operators).

People just make up names and addresses to get away with it.

Plus we run into a whole load of **** when drivers are asking women and children for personal details.....

Fair enough. It was a good 12-13 years ago that I'm talking now (eugh, getting so old).

 

[vicisthebest]

Wow, and I just RTM'd my first guy - practically every post he's made has been a racist one.

 

[vicisthebest]

The thought of "small things can have an effect" actually is how I generally try and live. If someone needs something or I can do a small favour to ANYONE for nothing other than a moments attention or for relatively small effort (depends on the circumstances) I'll always do it.

It almost never costs anything and even in this case I'd hope most people would equate 20p to being pretty much nothing and I know I'm a better person from it.

Unsure if it's related but I can ALMOST count on my luck in any given circumstance as a result. I'm genuinely rather "lucky". I'd like to think it's karma and as a result of keeping mine high the universe looks after me in return

Last weekend I paid to park in a pay and display car park but I only had a £2 coin which was 4 hours of parking when I only wanted 1. So when I got back to car, I gave my ticket to the woman who wanted my space and the look of shock and gratitude on her face was incredible, I do it all the time without even thinking about it, I've paid for the ticket whether I go home with it or pass it on so I figure I might as well save someone else a couple of pennies.

Another time I was queueing for some toilets, the woman behind me had a little girl who was whining that she was bursting, so I let them go in front of me.

You're right, tiny acts of kindness which cost next to nothing in time or money are things I try to do. I don't believe in karma but I do believe in kindness.

 

[vicisthebest]

Amazing how many people on here would have given her 20p , yet the bus was full and no-one came to her aid ? Are the good citizens of Nottingham completely different from the rest of the UK when it comes to helping people or are 99% of the people on here claiming they'd have helped giving it the usual keyboard warrior nonsense.

Anyone from Nottingham, walk from Victoria Centre to Broadmarsh, how many times are you hit with the same "i need 20 pence for my bus fare" story ? I'd take a wild shot in the dark thats one of the atypical beggar lines in every major city.

Yes this poor girl was raped and thats absolutely shocking. At the same time if she'd not had that last drink she'd have had the money, is that the bus driver or people on the buses fault. I think not.

But she isn't a typical smelly old beggar. She is an intelligent, and probably articulate, law student on her way home. Everyone who pushed past her to get on the bus knew that it wasnt a story... She was pleading with the driver. She DID need 20p for her bus.