Mayor told to wear 'longer skirt' after 1970s Grimsby sex attack

Beverley mayor Linda Johnson, pictured with consort Graham Johnson, said she was still affected by the attack in the 1970s

A mayor sexually assaulted as a young woman was told by police she should have "worn a longer skirt", a council meeting heard.

Beverley town mayor Linda Johnson, 65, was assaulted by a stranger in broad daylight in Grimsby in the 1970s.

She told the East Riding of Yorkshire Council meeting she was still affected by the incident more than 40 years on.

Recent attacks on women showed that "unhelpful attitudes" still exist, Ms Johnson added.

She was speaking during a meeting focusing on bolstering safety measures for women in the area.

The 65-year-old said the attacks such as hers, which happened in her early twenties, "affect you for the rest of your life" and that she now carried a rape alarm, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

'Lingering sexism'

She added: "Sometimes when I'm walking alone I cross the road to avoid people and I don't like going into the multi-storey car park in Beverley at night."

The councillor said although she hoped the same kind of "misogynistic response" would not happen nowadays, more had to be done to address "lingering sexist attitudes".

Speaking about responses to the rape and murder of Hull student Libby Squire as well as the killing of Sarah Everard in London, Ms Johnson said "unhelpful attitudes persist".

"We had Boris Johnson's comments saying women should just hail a bus down if they're worried about being attacked.

"But what if a woman is leaving a pub late at night and there are no buses?"

Education, particularly in families from an early age, had to be part of efforts to tackle violence against women and misogyny, she said.

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As a parent, she described it being a balance between wanting her daughter to be safe on a night out with wanting her to enjoy herself.

"Ultimately, mistreating women and misogyny has to be perceived as completely unacceptable in a similar way to how attitudes have shifted on something like climate change.

"You'd hope things have come on since it happened to me, but all this is still going on."

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