Graduate's safety bracelet aims to stop harassment

Nahla O'Rourke said she wanted the device to be "something women can actually wear day-to-day"

A university graduate has designed a bracelet with a series of secret features aimed at keeping the wearer safe from harassment.

Inspired by her own experiences, Nahla O'Rourke said the bangle included a hidden button linked to an app capable of initiating a fake phone call or sending location details to a contact.

The 22-year-old created "the Venus project" as part of her product design course at Sheffield Hallam University in hopes of giving wearers "discrete confidence" while out in public.

Ms O'Rourke, from Lincoln, said: "Harassment can happen to anyone, anywhere, and I wanted something people could have on them all the time that doesn't look like a big red safety button."

She said she wanted the device to look like "a piece of jewellery, not ruin an outfit, and be something women can actually wear day-to-day".

Therefore, she said, when it appeared the wearer was just scratching their wrist, they could actually be "alerting loved ones, and getting yourself out of the situation".

The bracelet features a hidden button linked to an app on the wearer's phone

"If I'm at a bar and I'm uncomfortable or some is being creepy, I can get a discrete phone call from tapping a hidden button and they wouldn't know," she said.

"But if I was trying to send a text to my friend on an Apple Watch, it would be immediately obvious to the person who's making me feel that way."

Ms O'Rourke said she was working to refine the design beyond university standard and hoped to have it on the market by the end of 2025, with more than 100 people on a waiting list.

As of August, more than 100 people had already signed up to the Venus project waiting list

Around one in eight women have been victims of stalking, sexual assault or domestic abuse in the last year, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Meanwhile, reports of violent crimes against women and girls on public transport rose by 20% in the year to August 2024.

According to a report by the UK's spending watchdog, government efforts to tackle violence against women and girls had so far "not improved outcomes".

Georgia Theodoulou, a senior campaigner for Our Streets Now, said technology, well-lit streets and other measures can help make people feel safer, but more needs to be done to address the root causes of the issue.

She said: "To be safe, rather than feel safe, we must focus on early intervention and prevention of public sexual harassment so women, girls and people of marginalised genders can exist safely in public, without feeling the need to change their behaviour."

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North