Better lighting could have stopped attack - victim

Sheraze was attacked in a park in Watford in November last year

A woman who was attacked in a park said brighter lighting could have stopped her assault or helped find the perpetrator.

Sheraze has presented a petition to Watford Borough Council asking it to install lights and CCTV along a busy path in the town's Cassiobury Park.

She told councillors passers-by could not see what was happening in the darkness when she was attacked in the early evening in November.

The council said tackling violence against women and girls (VWAG) was a "strategic objective".

Sheraze, who did not want to give her surname, told the council meeting: "The attacker came out of nowhere - I couldn't see anything. It was dark."

She said there were people walking past "but nobody stopped to help because it was too dark", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

"Somebody came back when they heard me crying and they said 'I saw you but it was too dark'," she told councillors.

She was taken to hospital with cuts and bruises after the assault.

Sheraze added she and the 128 people who signed her petition wanted the council "to put lights on one path where commuters go daily".

“People say this will affect animals and nature, but this petition is not to put lights everywhere – it’s to put lights on one path where commuters go daily," she said.

“At one point after my attack, I stood there and counted how many people I saw. I saw 84 people – and of those 63 were female, walking like me at 5pm."

Watford Borough Council said it was working to make the Hertfordshire town safe for residents

Liberal Democrat councillor Peter Jeffree said: "I don't think we should be spending money we don't have on adding lighting.

"There is a question of balance. We shouldn't be turning a semi-rural park into an urban park.

“There are gaps on CCTV coverage and significant gaps ought to be addressed.”

But Labour councillor Sara Jane Trebar said she would support lighting and CCTV improvements in the park, which lies to the north of her ward.

"It's really brave - to see a woman coming here and talking to us from a female point of view," she said.

Aga Dychton, responsible for community at the Liberal Democrat-led local authority, said the council was "very passionate" about tackling violence against women and girls.

"We are raising awareness across the borough and are working with community partners to tackle VWAG and to identify Watford as a safe place for all," she said.

Cassiobury Park covers hundreds of acres in north west Watford and has numerous leisure facilities, as well as wilder, more rural areas