GANGS OF youths harassed students on the path connecting campus to Heslington Road in the snow last month.
Teenagers hurled snow balls and abuse at passing students, which in some cases escalated to physical violence.
The path, often dubbed ‘Rape Alley’ by students, and is used by hundreds of students on a daily basis. “They would throw snowballs aiming for my head and shout intimidatingly. It got to the point where I was too scared to walk home,” Lucia Linares, a second year History and Politics student, told Vision.
Two students, who wish to remain anonymous, encountered the gang walking home from an evening shop, leaving student with a black eye and bleeding lip while his girlfriend was held back by a group of five teenagers.
The third year Economics student told Vision, “We were walking home with our shopping when they started throwing snow balls and shouting at us from the connecting field. After ignoring them for a bit I asked them to please stop.”
“The next thing I know I saw a group of 15 of them in front of me and then four or five behind me. They started asking me if I was a faggot and again I asked them to stop. Then one of them hit me in the back and one of them punched me in the mouth. I just kept walking but he came back and punched me again, square in the eye.”
Amadea Ng, a first year History student, told Vision the details of the racial abuse she received walking home alone on a Friday night: “I was walking back alone and saw a group of kids, so I moved aside to the pavement but when I did that, a boy pushed me off, shouted really racist things and so I walked away quicker, but then they started throwing snowballs at me, and ran in front of me to throw it in my face.”
The gang made the road unsafe for three straight days. David Garner, the University of York Press Officer, told Vision that “our security staff were alerted to the incidents during the cold weather. They responded and informed North Yorkshire Police who also attended.”