Girls and girls ‘are being focused by sexual predators in blended altering rooms’

Women and girls are being targeted by sexual predators in mixed changing rooms, a report has claimed. 

Eighty sexual assaults, 16 rapes and 65 incidents of voyeurism happened across leisure centres in England and Wales in 2023, according to police data obtained by the Women’s Rights Network (WRN).

In light of their recent findings, the campaigners have warned that mixed-sex changing rooms are a ‘magnet for sexual predators’ and pose hidden dangers for women and girls. 

It comes as a previous report from the group found only one in three councils offered no single-sex changing areas for swimming pool users.

Beyond workplaces and schools, it is not compulsory for a service provider to offer single-sex facilities. 

However, once it is indicated that a space is single-sex, such as women’s toilets or changing rooms, then they must only be used by women.

Olympic swimming champion, Sharron Davies MBE, has backed the WRN’s calls on local authorities to act and ‘protect all female swimmers’. 

The 63-year-old said: ‘Women and girls face hidden dangers when using their local pools because mixed-sex changing rooms are proving to be a magnet for sexual predators.

Women and girls are being targeted by sexual predators in mixed changing rooms, a report by  the Women’s Rights Network (WRN) has claimed

Olympic swimming champion, Sharron Davies MBE (pictured), has backed the WRN’s calls on local authorities to act and ‘protect all female swimmers’

‘Horrendous’ crimes, such as sexual assaults, voyeurism, and rapes were happening in swimming pool changing rooms, the Commonwealth champion added.  

‘One-third of leisure centres provide no single-sex changing or shower facilities for female swimmers as local authorities have moved to mixed-sex changing villages, often following Sport England guidance.’

The data obtained by the WRN, indicates there were 146 reported sex crimes in English leisure centres in 2023. 

Of the incidents said to have occurred across 220 leisure centres, seven were perpetrated by a male member of staff.

The WRN had received responses from 35 of the 38 police forces, with ten of those refusing to provide the information. 

An exact location of where offences took place was often not recorded in enough detail by the police for an accurate response to be given, the report stated. 

It comes as a teenage victim was sexually assaulted by a man in swimming pool showers in Hull in April of this year.

She previously told Hull Crown Court that she cried herself ‘to sleep’ following the incident. 

‘I couldn’t cope with the thoughts that plagued my mind. I suffered vivid nightmares, those same scenes playing on repeat in my head,’ she said. 

Nurse Sandie Peggie (pictured) won her battle against NHS Fife after she was suspended for complaining about having to share a women’s only changing room with a trans doctor

‘I had countless panic attacks. I was constantly battling my own thoughts. To this day, the smell of chlorine makes my muscles tense.’ 

Meanwhile, police raised ‘substantive concerns’ about potential voyeurism taking place at a proposed swimming pool in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. 

In a planning meeting in September, a police officer said redesigning the proposed facility would ‘demonstrate that the issue of violence towards women and girls ha[d] been considered.’

In 2024, Adam Dennis and Robert Morgan were found guilty after filming at least 6,000 young women and girls getting undressed as they hid in swimming pool changing rooms.

More recently, a Scottish nurse won her battle against NHS Fife after being suspended after raising complaints about changing rooms 

Sandie Peggie, who works at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, complained after being made to change beside female-identifying Dr Beth Upton but was suspended from work after an incident in the changing room on Christmas Eve 2023.

But after a bitter battle in the employment courts which has seen Mrs Peggie, Dr Upton, and their colleagues give weeks worth gruelling testimony, Employment Judge Sandy Kemp has found NHS Fife had harassed her.