Australian women are sharing their stories about being groped on trains after a conservative journalist called it “straight up fantasy”.

Claire Lehmann, founder and editor of conservative publication Quillette, tweeted yesterday that “men don’t grope on Australian trains. This is straight up fantasy.”

In response, Australian women are sharing their stories of literally being groped on public transport.

[Please be warned that some of this content may be distressing.]

“First time I was groped on City Rail property was when I was 19,” wrote Twitter user @anton_labae. “I left Stanmore station on the Trafalgar St side and felt something tickling my shorts and brushed it away. I kept walking for ~10min and then felt one or two fingers touching my vulva in my shorts over my underwear. I turned around and saw a Caucasian man approx 5’9”. He removed his hands from my vulva and raised his hands in an “I’m sorry, my bad” motion and ran swiftly in the opposite direction.”

first time i was groped on cityrail property was when i was 19. i left stanmore station on the trafalgar st side and felt something tickling my shorts and brushed it away. i kept walking for ~10m and then felt one or two fingers touching my vulva in my shorts over my underwear — an aldi christmas (@anton_labae) April 17, 2018

@clairlemon two or more of his fingers on my vulva with an upward motion and grinned again. he then made a "come hither" motion with his fingers. i then made an attempt to retaliate but as my dress was floor length i did not hit the man. — an aldi christmas (@anton_labae) April 17, 2018

He then attempted to touch my vulva from behind. I then kicked the man in the seat of his pants. The man then retaliated by calling me a slut and attempted to punch me. He then attempted to kick me. He was then convinced to disembark the train by myself and fellow passengers. — an aldi christmas (@anton_labae) April 17, 2018

“Men have followed me off Sydney trains, groped me on Sydney trains, masturbated in front me me (twice when I was a high school student) on Sydney trains and verbally abused me on Sydney trains,” wrote BuzzFeed journalist Gina Rush.

?

Men have followed me off Sydney trains, groped me on Sydney trains, masturbated in front of me (twice when I was a high school student) on Sydney trains and verbally abused me on Sydney trains. https://t.co/dI0mVcdnNg — Gina Rushton (@ginarush) April 17, 2018

“I wish it was fantasy,” wrote ABC reporter Ariel Bogle. “Would have been lovely for my teenage self not to have been masturbated at by men multiple times on Sydney buses.”

Like @ginarush pointed out, I wish it was a fantasy. Would have been lovely for my teenage self not to have been masturbated at by men multiple times on Sydney buses https://t.co/rGCJ4iL9DN — Ariel Bogle (@arielbogle) April 17, 2018

“Enduring childhood memory: reaching for a train door handle and my friend grabbing my hand to stop me,” wrote writer Asher Wolf. “Some guy had cum all over the metal door grip.”

Enduring childhood memory: reaching for a train door handle and my friend grabbing my hand to stop me. Some guy had cum all over the metal door grip. https://t.co/zZjeFvZVkk — Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) April 17, 2018

These incidences are hardly in the minority; dozens more people are speaking about their experiences online, but PEDESTRIAN.TV has not sought explicit permission to republish them here.

When P.TV reached out to Lehmann for her response to the reaction to her tweet, and if she still stood by it, she said:

“So my tweet is being construed as me claiming that groping has never happened on trains, which is a slight misreading of its intended meaning (which I will admit was open to interpretation). My intended meaning was that the rate of groping is statistically negligible, as in close to zero, if you look at recorded statistics.”

She also followed up publicly to discredit the stories being shared (she claimed to P.TV that this was not her intended meaning).

“I call [bullshit],” she tweeted in response to Rushton’s story. “It this happened regularly it would be a national scandal.”

In another tweet, she put all the people coming forward under a cloud of suspicion.

“Individual citizens are under no obligation to believe stories of abuse or harassment presented to them by strangers on social media,” she said, claiming that a willingness to believe victims leads to false claims being made.

“If anything, being overly credulous works to incentivise false claims, hoaxes and moral panics.”

Well, here are the stats: There were 318 reported incidences of sexual assault on New South Wales trains in 2017 alone, according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOSCAR).

In Victoria last year, a new police unit dedicated to investigating sexual assault on public transport was set up after incidences jumped by 40 percent in 12 months (there were 350 incidences of sexual assault in the 12 months preceding October 2017, compared to 249 the previous year).

The reality is that sexual assault does occur on public transport, as it occurs in essentially every other part of society – and to say otherwise is to ignore the problem.

Anyone who has experienced sexual assault (on public transport or otherwise) is encouraged to report the incident to local police. If you would like to seek support / counselling around these issues, you can contact 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 for 24/7, completely confidential support.