Thread by @BethRigby

The murder of #SarahEverard was a watershed moment. Sexual violence & harassment touches us all, whatever our background or politics. 4 MPs tell their stories, united in their drive to make tackling violence against women & girls a political priority
news.sky.com/story/everybod…

The aim of our discussion with @carolinenokes @jessphillips @DrRosena @JonesyFay was to show other women that you can be a powerful, public figure & still experience sexual harassment. No-one's immune. And we wanted to talk to these MPs about what can be done to deal with it 2/

Their stories: @JonesyFay was flashed when she was 17 years old, on her way to meet her then MP dad. She didn't tell him 'cos she felt "ashamed" When she finally did "there was no talk about of phoning the police because you don't make a fuss...you've got to make a fuss" 3/

.@carolinenokes recalls being grabbed by a group of men on a school trip to the zoo when she was 11 years old. "It lives with me to this day, that men felt empowered to literally grab a school child as she passed, hands everywhere, and then gone." 4/

.@carolinenokes claims she was touched inappropriately by Stanley Johnson. She recounts him "smacking me on the backside about as hard as he could & going: 'Oh Romsey [Ms Nokes was candiDate in that seat], you've got a lovely seat." Johnson says he has no recollection of Nokes 5/

@@carolinenokes says of her experiences: "I now regard it as my duty, and absolute duty, to call it out wherever you see it. To be the noisy, aggravating, aggressive woman in the room, because if I'm not prepared to do that, then my daughter won't be prepared to do that." 6/

.@DrRosena spoke of being harassed by a more senior colleague as a junior doctor. 'One day at the end of my shift he took me aside into a room, shut the door and said: 'I can ruin your whole career...The moment I left work, I burst into tears, I was afraid to go back in." 7/

.@DrRosena did go back into work & reported him. It emerged this senior medic had done this systematically every six months to a different female junior doctor. "You feel that if you speak out, your career's over, so many women don't." 8/

.@DrRosena also recalled a man assaulting her while cutting her hair as a teenager. "He was cutting the front & his hands were touching my breasts while he was cutting my hair...I felt a bit paralysed in that moment...that could happen to my kids, & I'd want them to shout out 9/

.@jessphillips recalls being flashed at and witnessing men masturbating on her way to school. She also recalls her boss sexually assaulting her when she was 19. "I woke up at a party with the boss of where I worked literally pulling my trousers down." 10/

Those are their stories, what do they want to change? All 4 MPs want to sexual harassment a crime, and to use the tragic case of #SarahEverard as a force for change "There's too many women being abused. Just too many." says Phillips 11/

.@jessphillips argues there needs to be a proper offender strategy to monitor those who are the most serious and prolific offenders
.@JonesyFay is now campaigning to make cyber flashing a criminal offence - and planning to table an amendment to the Online Harms Bill 12/

.@carolinenokes believes making sexual harassment a crime "sends a firm message". "It also helps you to identify those perpetrators early on in their offending journey. We know, don't we, Wayne Couzens, flashed women before he ever kidnapped, raped & murdered Sarah Everard" 13/

All these MPs agree they must continue banging the drum to drive cultural change. @DrRosena doesn't think everyone in govt, in parliament has grasped the scale of the problem. "Convictions aren't where they should be. We know that prevention is not where it should be" 14/

.@jessphillips wants to change lang away from talking about women experiencing harassment towards perpetrators. "What we haven't done, culturally, is accept that if everybody knows a victim, everybody already knows a perpetrator. That's much harder for people to comprehend" 15/

This a project that aimed to continue the conversation about tacking violence against women.

It wouldn't have got off the ground without the tireless work of @Katy_Dillon & the production wizardry of @verybignews /ENDS

Watch the panel here here