By MATTHEW DAVIS

Published: 22:00 GMT, 10 January 2026 | Updated: 02:50 GMT, 11 January 2026

Women who report men filming up their skirts are having their ordeals ‘minimised’ by police as figures reveal less than one in six cases result in a criminal charge.

Analysis of so-called ‘upskirting’ in the past two years shows police logged almost 800 allegations, yet just 118 ended up in court.

Despite new laws being introduced in 2019 to better protect women, critics fear many victims are still failing to secure justice.

Upskirting is when someone films or takes a picture of a woman under their clothing without consent. 

Social media personality Gina Martin campaigned for the law after she was filmed by a stranger at a music festival in London. Police told her there was nothing they could do as there was no offence at that time to cover the man’s behaviour.

Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said police were still failing to take women seriously over the issue, adding: ‘Upskirting is a traumatic violation in its own right, and can form part of a wider pattern of offending that includes rape and other forms of sexual violence.

‘We’ve long called for non-contact sexual offences to be taken more seriously. However, the reality is that they are often minimised when reported, with police frequently failing to investigate them properly or recognise patterns of offending.

‘This leads to missed opportunities to prevent further abuse. Upskirting has been a specific criminal offence since 2019, but the low number of prosecutions shows that criminalisation alone is not the solution.’

Social media personality Gina Martin campaigned for a change to the law after she was filmed by a stranger at a music festival in London (file photo)

Analysis of so-called ‘upskirting’ in the past two years shows police logged almost 800 allegations, yet just 118 ended up in court (file photo)

Ms Simon said ‘we need to challenge the attitudes that underpin this behaviour’, and that preventing abuse before it happens is ‘the key to creating long-term change’.

Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Helen Millichap, the national policing lead for violence against women and girls, said ‘positive action’ must be taken to bring upskirting offenders to justice. 

She added: ‘We have been working hard to improve our response to these crimes with new training produced by the College of Policing.’

Home Office figures show that in the past two years police logged 772 upskirting offences, of which 118 saw somebody charged and taken to court, while 11 accepted a caution.

In 265 cases a prime suspect was identified, but problems gaining evidence meant they were not charged.

Another 201 cases were shelved as officers could not track down a suspect, with 17 cases closed after a community resolution was reached, often an apology from the offender.