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A sexually obscene phone call - and my two-year ordeal getting police to act

BBC
Summary
Nutrition label

69% Informative

Journalist recorded obscene phone call from a stranger masturbating down the phone.

She recorded him on speakerphone and recorded him for five minutes as he masturbated.

He called out her first name and made lewd and obscene comments about her genitalia.

She dialled 999 to report the crime and uploaded recording to police's system.

But officers failed to trace the call and dropped her case.

Wayne Couzens was eventually charged - but he wouldn't have been if I hadn't taken control of it.

He'd been convicted in 2015 for making 15,000 calls to random numbers.

Wayne Couzens pleaded guilty to three offences of indecent exposure, one just days before he raped and murdered Sarah Everard .

Lancashire Police were heavily criticised for their failure to deal with these incidents, which could have identified him as a sex offender.

But they didn't arrest him at the moment as he didn't meet the custody threshold.

VR Score

68

Informative language

63

Neutral language

46

Article tone

informal

Language

English

Language complexity

33

Offensive language

likely offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

short-lived

Source diversity

1

Affiliate links

no affiliate links