Victims 'devastated' by train CCTV failures that allow sex offenders to go untraced

A BBC investigation has found that sexual offenders on trains are fleeing justice due to serious issues with CCTV on the rail network.

According to one woman who was sexually assaulted on a train, she was devastated to learn that her attacker could not be identified because the incident was not caught on camera.

In hundreds of cases of suspected sexual assault or assault, British Transport Police (BTP) officers in England, Scotland, and Wales say they had trouble finding evidence from CCTV video obtained from train and station surveillance.

According to the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, the industry treats sexual harassment and assault cases "very seriously.

BTP has no influence over the maintenance of CCTV cameras on the rail and London Underground networks, and there is no regulatory requirement on rail operators to have working CCTV cameras in passenger trains, according to a 4 Investigates report.

We shared our findings with Claire Waxman, the Victims Commissioner for England and Wales, who is now calling for operational CCTV to be mandatory for train companies.

I don't know how we can keep people safe in those spaces and on public transportation,

she says.

Warning: This contains information that may be troubling.

Three men sexually assaulted Beth Wright on a Tube train in central London.

They started giving me candy and then it morphed into, 'would you like to have sex with your friend,'

says the 27-year-old. "One of them came over to me and asked to sit next to me while touching my leg. It was really intimidating.

Other passengers on the train eventually interfered, and Wright reported what happened to police, but the criminals were never identified.

She claims there was no CCTV from her train carriage, and the CCTV at the station where the men had left the train was broken, so there was certainly no way her assassins could be identified.

I was just devastated, very sad because I'd done all the right things,

she says.

I'd gone and reported it right away, and I was able to give a rundown of these guys,

I was told, and you should expect things like CCTV to work and be in place.

Wright had a major influence on him.

To be frank, it's changed my life. I actually moved, but I now live in Brighton, which is much safer for me, she says. I'm still worried every time I fly into London.

Last year, the BBC announced reports of sexual assaults and bullying on trains in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Where CCTV was mentioned in the log, the BBC made a Freedom of Information request to British Transport Police for the information of suspected sex offences. More than 560 reports were received around the United Kingdom, where police requested train or station CCTV as part of their investigation.

In more than 250 of these cases, the incident had not been recorded, there was a camera malfunction, the video was of an unusable quality, or it had already been overwritten.

Despite the fact that the BTP has more than 10,000 miles of railway track and 3,000 stations, platforms, and transportation hubs, it does not own or control any of the CCTV cameras in use in these locations, which is a significant issue for the BTG.

According to data obtained by File on 4 Investigates, CCTV cameras at one major train company had been out of service for more than 81,000 hours (nine years) in 2025.

In addition, the company had one single camera that had been out of service for 152 days – more than five months. More than two years ago, another company's outages totalled more than two decades.

Rail operators are not legally obligated to have working CCTV on all trains and stations as a rule. What's more, they can choose the time for retaining video, which may result in evidence being deleted in a short period of time.

Our investigation revealed that for one train operator, the longest time for retaining footage was 48 hours.

What's more, there are three main Tube lines in London without any CCTV cameras in train carriages.

These lines, according to Transport for London (TFL), which operates the Tube, have some of the oldest trains on the network, so are unable to provide on-train CCTV that meets "the police's stringent requirements for prosecution.

TfL says it is continuing to expand the network, with plans to buy new trains with on-board CCTV cameras on two of the three lines.

Rebecca Horne was sexually assaulted on the day she had organised an event in Parliament to celebrate International Women's Day.

However, the 39-year-old woman was cornered by a man in a train carriage on her return home to Essex.

He really invaded my personal space. He began to touch and grope me, and he was rubbing his genitals against me,she says. There wasn't much for me to go on, and I was afraid. I was too afraid to call him out or ask for assistance.

Horne described the incident later that day to the police.

She claims she was called by officers to say that there was no CCTV video of the assault a few weeks later.

'I could hear the officer's voice,' she says. "He was really compassionate and sympathetic to my situation, but he was angry that this critical piece of evidence wasn't available.

Horne says the news was really heartbreaking. She had put herself into a tragic situation, giving victim impact statements and speaking to several police about the assault, but apparently for nothing.

Horne's assassination attempt was later discovered by police after she spotted him at a station.

He pleaded guilty to sexual assault, received a community order and was forbidden to do unpaid work.

Claire Waxman is worried that it would not take long for offenders to find out where cameras were not working or broken, or where they were lost.

These are the areas where they will go, she says. "We're talking about sexual predators, and it's absolutely critical that the train companies be up to date.

Prof Katrin Hohl, an independent government adviser on sexual justice responses to sexual assault, warns that if sexual offenders are not dealt with, their crimes will escalate.

If someone discloses themselves indecently, they may also be guilty of other forms of sexual assault,

she says.

The Rail Delivery Group said in a tweet that

British Transport Police's solve rate is significantly higher than the national average,

the Rail Delivery Group said in an email. According to a national average of 2.25 per cent and 20% of sexual assault cases, 85% of rape cases and 20% were resolved, relative to soaring rates of 2.8%.

It was announced that the rail industry was investing in enhanced CCTV coverage and technology to assist and support police investigations, as well as a broader range of safety initiatives, such as increased incident reporting, intelligence sharing, and a national training scheme for frontline rail employees.

Alex Davies-Jones, the minister for victims, told the BBC that the government was investing nearly £17 million to upgrade British Transport Police's station CCTV and raising its budget to more than £481 million over the next three years.