Police urge joggers to 'stay vigilant' after teen allegedly attacks Canberra woman on running trail

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Police are urging runners to "stay vigilant" on Canberra's trails after a teenager allegedly attacked a 59-year-old woman in broad daylight while she was jogging. The incident comes after another female runner was allegedly grabbed from behind by a man, but managed to break free, while out on a trail in March. Female runners have expressed their concerns about feeling unsafe, with more women turning to groups to feel secure while exercising outdoors.

Transcript

00:00For Kira Rankin, running is an opportunity to have some me time, but always at the back

00:07of her mind is safety.

00:09I never am on the same trail at the same time.

00:12I think that's a really good tip for women as well, not to do the same path, the same

00:16direction, the same time every day, because that kind of sets up a potential safety hazard.

00:24An incident earlier this week in the ACT has her concerned.

00:27I think it's like a bigger topic that we need to address more so than what happened.

00:33It's like why did it happen and why is there not more education with young men and just

00:40men in general about, yeah, decent human behaviour.

00:46Police say a woman was attacked by a man not known to her on the Centenary running trail

00:51in Bonner.

00:52He grabbed her around the neck and continued to assault her.

00:56She managed to fight her way free, but the offender took her phone and took off.

01:01A passerby called Triple O and a teenager was later arrested.

01:04It is a very isolated incident.

01:07We don't get too many incidents such as these and Canberra is very safe most of the time.

01:12But it's left some people questioning what could be done to help make running safer.

01:17The TLDR club runs at Lake Burley Griffin because of its lighting.

01:21A lot of our areas have really nice parks and ovals and paths, but generally most of

01:27them are in the dark.

01:28So I think that's one area that does need a lot of attention.

01:30The club includes men who say they're learning about how to make women feel safer.

01:35We can change our habits to cross the road, deviate our paths, which is to be honest the

01:40most minor thing that we can do to make a woman feel so much safer in their environment.

01:46They're looking after each other one K at a time.

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