A man, short and plump, pressed up against me and he had an erection.

New submission from Hannah

This happened some time back but it still upsets me to remember it.

I was in a crowded tube train at rush hour. A man, short and plump, pressed up against me and he had an erection. I could feel him pushing it into my backside and I couldn’t get away. This went on for several minutes, until the train stopped and he jumped off. He was wearing black jogging bottoms and I saw him walking off with a newspaper in front of his crotch to conceal his erection.

I wish I had done something at the time to make him stop and draw attention to his harassment. At the time, I felt trapped and frightened. I also had a strange feeling of being under his control and that he had power over me. That was probably the worst thing of all.

The doors slid open and the man was stood there with his flies down, exposing himself at my eye level.

New submission from Jo

I’d just finished work and was waiting on the Northern Line platform at Warren Street station. The tube arrived and I waited for the doors to open. The platform wasn’t busy and there was only me trying to get on the tube via my chosen doors. There was a man, maybe 35-40, on the tube, staring out the window at me. I fleetingly thought about moving to another carriage but I quite enjoy pushing past a starer and knocking him with my bag full of books. So I stayed put. The doors slid open and the man was stood there with his flies down, exposing himself at my eye level. Grim. I had a slightly delayed reaction and had already embarked the train. I was really shocked, and pretty revolted, and didn’t really know what to do, so I moved into the centre of the carriage away from him. As I moved past him, he followed me with his hips, pointing his TINY penis at me and grinning. I muttered, ‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’ and he didn’t reply but started thrusting his hips. Weirdly, no one else reacted. All the seats were full, there was even a man stood next to him. And no one behaved like this was at all weird!

Dude, put it away! It’s 7:30 a.m. and you’re in public, for God’s sake!!

I was walking to Leyton Tube station at 7:30 a.m. and passed by the King Harold pub, which has scaffolding set up on it. (I want to mention the King Harold is my local, and I’m not blaming the pub for what happened – it’s a great pub. But I wanted to let anyone local know where to watch out for this perv).

Under the scaffolding, against the pub wall, between two metal pillars, was a guy who looked fairly cleanly but grubbily dressed (i.e., not homeless), whose hand, I noticed, was hovering a little bit below his waist.

Okay, I thought, a little uncouth – until I realised that HIS FLY WAS UNZIPPED AND HE WAS MASTURBATING.

First of all, it was freezing cold – who the hell whips it out when it’s -2 degrees? But that’s beside the point. This was a busy main road, with lots of people – including women – passing by on their way to and from work. And he wasn’t even trying to hide it – it was obviously some form of exhibitionism, and all female passers-by were probably part of the enjoyment for him. I felt disgusting.

So I reached for my phone to call the cops, knowing it would be useless because he wasn’t in a confined space, so he could leave at any time … but of course, I picked this day to leave my phone at home.

I considered talking to the staff at the Tube station, letting them know this was going on a few blocks away and that I wasn’t able to call the police, but if they thought it was a valid problem, they should – but the station was fairly busy, and I didn’t know if they’d pay any attention.

So I did nothing. And I feel crappy about that. But I’m not sure what other options I had – even if I’d had my phone, this guy would have probably gotten away with it. But I feel vaguely violated and skeeved out by the whole experien