The lifesaver in your pocket

The teenage victim of a sex attack has spoken out to encourage people to set up a life-saving feature on their mobile phone.

The 18 year old from the Wrexham area was on her way home from a night out in the town centre last September, when she was overpowered by her attacker.

She was able to activate the ‘Emergency SOS‘ feature on her phone, which not only dials the emergency services, but also gives an audible countdown and sends a text, including a map of their location, to a nominated contact.

For a period of time after you enter SOS mode, your mobile sends updates to your emergency contacts when your location changes.

Her 999 call, which was recorded by North Wales Police’s control room, captured details of the attack and was used as powerful evidence in the court case, which resulted in Amer Aldeii of Wrexham being sentenced to five years in prison on March 13th.

Speaking for the first time since the trial, the teenager wants everyone to set up the feature, and also to discuss it with the people they nominate as an emergency contact: “My Mum got a text, but because I didn’t think I would ever use it, I didn’t explain it to her.”

Under Operation Aegis, North Wales Police aims to keep people safe and work closely with partners to safeguard and divert those who are victims. We are involved in preventative and informative work, visiting schools, local community groups, multi-agency events, home visits and the use of social media.

Det. Constable Lisa Evans said: “This is a simple, life-saving function on a device we all carry around in our pockets. I would urge everyone to set up their information and talk to their friends about it.”

Attacks of this kind are thankfully rare in North Wales, but you never know when you might need emergency services help for many other reasons, which is why it is important that as many people as possible know of the capability on their phones to provide this kind of help.”

The feature is available on all iPhones operating iOS11 and later.

Android users will need to check their particular manufacturer’s website and the app store for availability.

For more information on iPhone Emergency SOS please visit https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208076